How many baby White-tailed prairie dogs are in a litter?
A White-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 5 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 30 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 35 grams (0.08 lbs) and measure 25.4 cm (0′ 10″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Cynomys). An adult White-tailed prairie dog grows up to a size of 30.7 cm (1′ 1″).
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 white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) is found in western Wyoming and western Colorado with small areas in eastern Utah and southern Montana. The largest populations are in Wyoming where they are known colloquially as “chiselers”. This prairie dog species lives at an elevation between 5,000 and 10,000 feet, generally a higher elevation than other prairie dog species. Its predators include black-footed ferrets, badgers, and golden eagles.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
White-tailed prairie dog is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Davao squirrel raching a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Harris’s antelope squirrel with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Plantain squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Epixerus ebii wilsoni weighting only 422 grams
- Swinhoe’s striped squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- San Joaquin antelope squirrel with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Jungle palm squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Jentink’s flying squirrel weighting only 56 grams
- Columbian ground squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Black-eared squirrel raching a size of 9.5 cm (0′ 4″)
Animals that share a litter size with White-tailed prairie dog
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Lowland streaked tenrec
- Pale field rat
- Tristram’s jird
- Northern red-backed vole
- Social vole
- Sagebrush vole
- Cliff chipmunk
- Mexican ground squirrel
- Montane vole
- Northern grass mouse
Animals with the same weight as a White-tailed prairie dog
What other animals weight around 964 grams (2.13 lbs)?
- Spotted giant flying squirrel usually reaching 1.04 kgs (2.29 lbs)
- Gunnison’s prairie dog weighting 798 grams
- Small-toothed sportive lemur weighting 955 grams
- Oncilla usually reaching 1.11 kgs (2.45 lbs)
- Bahia porcupine weighting 999 grams
- Giant golden-crowned flying fox usually reaching 1.09 kgs (2.4 lbs)
- Black-bearded flying fox weighting 872 grams
- Mimic tree rat weighting 975 grams
- Coppery titi usually reaching 1.12 kgs (2.47 lbs)
- Black-headed night monkey usually reaching 1.06 kgs (2.34 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a White-tailed prairie dog
Also reaching around 30.7 cm (1′ 1″) in size do these animals:
- Collie’s squirrel gets as big as 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Black dwarf porcupine gets as big as 35 cm (1′ 2″)
- Cape ground squirrel gets as big as 24.7 cm (0′ 10″)
- Western quoll gets as big as 34.9 cm (1′ 2″)
- Crowned lemur gets as big as 35.2 cm (1′ 2″)
- Raffray’s bandicoot gets as big as 34.6 cm (1′ 2″)
- Mimic tree rat gets as big as 30.5 cm (1′ 1″)
- Guianan squirrel monkey gets as big as 32.2 cm (1′ 1″)
- Rufous elephant shrew gets as big as 25 cm (0′ 10″)
- Long-footed potoroo gets as big as 35.9 cm (1′ 3″)