How many baby Volcano rabbits are in a litter?
A Volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 39 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 25 grams (0.06 lbs) and measure 8.1 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Leporidae family (genus: Romerolagus). An adult Volcano rabbit grows up to a size of 29.7 cm (1′ 0″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
The volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi), also known as teporingo or zacatuche, is a small rabbit that resides in the mountains of Mexico. It is the world’s second-smallest rabbit, second only to the pygmy rabbit. It has small rounded ears, short legs, and short, thick fur and weighs approximately 390–600 g (0.86–1.3 lb). It has a life span of 7 to 9 years. The volcano rabbit lives in groups of 2 to 5 animals in burrows (underground nests) and runways among grass tussocks. The burrows can be as long as 5 m and as deep as 40 cm. There are usually 2 to 3 young per litter, born in the burrows. In semi-captivity, however, they do not make burrows and the young are born in nests made in the grass tussocks.Unlike many species of rabbits (and similar to pikas), the volcano rabbit emits very high-pitched sounds instead of thumping its feet on the ground to warn other rabbits of danger. It is crepuscular and is highly active during twilight, dawn and all times in between. Populations have been estimated to have approximately 150–200 colonies with a total population of 1,200 individuals over their entire range. The last unconfirmed sighting of the species at Nevado de Toluca (where no permanent colony has been historically documented) occurred in August 2003 when supposedly one volcano rabbit was observed. Since 1987, however, research conducted by Hoth et al., in relation to the distribution of the Volcano Rabbit already found no records of this species in the Nevado de Toluca, including the site where Tikul Álvarez (IPN) collected a specimen in 1975 (Nevado de Toluca, 4 km S, 2 km W Raíces, 3350 masl). Notwithstanding, although no permanent colony has been documented in Nevado de Toluca, the volcano rabbit was declared “extinct” within this portion of its range in 2018; populations exist elsewhere within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and in captivity.. Due to the above, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (Red Data Book, IUCN 2019), no longer mentions the Nevado de Toluca as a current or potential site for the distribution of this species.
Other animals of the family Leporidae
Volcano rabbit is a member of the Leporidae, as are these animals:
- Jameson’s red rock hare with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Desert cottontail with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Antelope jackrabbit with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Arctic hare with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Dice’s cottontail with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Japanese hare with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Granada hare with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Yarkand hare with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Tres Marias rabbit weighting only 964 grams
- Chinese hare weighting around 1.61 kilograms (3.55 lbs)
Animals that share a litter size with Volcano rabbit
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- California kangaroo rat
- Schlieffen’s bat
- Moncton’s mosaic-tailed rat
- African wading rat
- Rusty-spotted genet
- Long-nosed bandicoot
- Manchurian hare
- Central African oyan
- Common genet
- Eastern long-eared bat
Animals with the same weight as a Volcano rabbit
What other animals weight around 465 grams (1.03 lbs)?
- Merriam’s pocket gopher weighting 419 grams
- Giant pocket gopher weighting 499 grams
- Maués marmoset weighting 443 grams
- Southern tuco-tuco weighting 403 grams
- Golden-rumped elephant shrew weighting 535 grams
- Wied’s marmoset weighting 375 grams
- Azara’s tuco-tuco weighting 400 grams
- Colombian soft-furred spiny rat weighting 394 grams
- Lesser bamboo rat weighting 472 grams
- Short-tailed chinchilla weighting 500 grams
Animals with the same size as a Volcano rabbit
Also reaching around 29.7 cm (1′ 0″) in size do these animals:
- Golden lion tamarin gets as big as 26.1 cm (0′ 11″)
- Utah prairie dog gets as big as 28.8 cm (1′ 0″)
- Long-clawed ground squirrel gets as big as 24.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Mountain weasel gets as big as 24.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Rufous elephant shrew gets as big as 25 cm (0′ 10″)
- New Britain water rat gets as big as 29.2 cm (1′ 0″)
- Golden-rumped elephant shrew gets as big as 27.3 cm (0′ 11″)
- Spotted linsang gets as big as 35.4 cm (1′ 2″)
- Chinese red pika gets as big as 24.5 cm (0′ 10″)
- Northern glider gets as big as 25.5 cm (0′ 11″)