How many baby Western pygmy possums are in a litter?
A Western pygmy possum (Cercartetus concinnus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 4 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 52 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 2.9 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Burramyidae family (genus: Cercartetus). An adult Western pygmy possum grows up to a size of 8.8 cm (0′ 4″).
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 western pygmy possum (Cercartetus concinnus), also known as the southwestern pygmy possum or the mundarda, is a small marsupial found in Australia. Genetic studies indicate its closest relative is probably the eastern pygmy possum, from which its ancestors diverged around eight million years ago.
Other animals of the family Burramyidae
Western pygmy possum is a member of the Burramyidae, as are these animals:
- Mountain pygmy possum with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Tasmanian pygmy possum with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Long-tailed pygmy possum with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Eastern pygmy possum with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Western pygmy possum
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Side-striped jackal
- Tien Shan red-backed vole
- Pale fox
- Nyika climbing mouse
- Desert pygmy mouse
- Mexican prairie dog
- Plateau pika
- Altai mole
- Tondano rat
- Dsinezumi shrew
Animals with the same weight as a Western pygmy possum
What other animals weight around 15 grams (0.03 lbs)?
- Central pebble-mound mouse weighting 12 grams
- Oldfield mouse weighting 14 grams
- Broad-toothed tailless bat weighting 15 grams
- Fat-tailed dunnart weighting 16 grams
- Velvety free-tailed bat weighting 13 grams
- Himalayan shrew weighting 14 grams
- Dark-footed mouse shrew weighting 12 grams
- Taiga shrew weighting 12 grams
- Chestnut short-tailed bat weighting 13 grams
- Thomas’s small-eared shrew weighting 12 grams