How many baby White-tailed rats are in a litter?
A White-tailed rat (Mystromys albicaudatus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 37 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 6 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 5.3 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Mystromys). An adult White-tailed rat grows up to a size of 1.12 meter (3′ 9″).
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 rat (Mystromys albicaudatus) also known as the white-tailed mouse, is the only member of the subfamily Mystromyinae in the family Nesomyidae. This species is sometimes placed in the subfamily Cricetinae due to similarities in appearance between the white-tailed rat and hamsters, but molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed that the two groups are not closely related. The subfamily Mystromyinae is sometimes placed within the family Muridae along with all other subfamilies of muroids.The white-tailed rat is restricted to shrubby areas and grasslands of South Africa and Lesotho. This is an uncommon species, and populations are thought to be declining because of conversion of scrubland to pasture. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as being an “endangered species”.
Other animals of the family Muridae
White-tailed rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Moss-forest rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Deroo’s mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Pleasant bolo mouse weighting only 27 grams
- Large pencil-tailed tree mouse weighting only 28 grams
- Tullberg’s soft-furred mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Mindanao hairy-tailed rat weighting only 186 grams
- Meadow vole with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Handleyomys intectus weighting only 60 grams
- Yellow-bellied brush-furred rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Lukolela swamp rat weighting only 42 grams
Animals that share a litter size with White-tailed rat
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Southern grasshopper mouse
- Alpine pine vole
- Painted spiny pocket mouse
- Transandinomys bolivaris
- Blackish white-toothed shrew
- Taiwanese brown-toothed shrew
- Red spiny rat
- Mexican cottontail
- Ring-tailed cat
- Northern brown bandicoot
Animals that get as old as a White-tailed rat
Other animals that usually reach the age of 6 years:
- Western quoll with 5 years
- Cave nectar bat with 5 years
- Spectral bat with 6.5 years
- Uinta ground squirrel with 5 years
- Derby’s woolly opossum with 5 years
- Long-eared hedgehog with 6.75 years
- Tiger quoll with 5 years
- Rufous elephant shrew with 6 years
- Eastern barred bandicoot with 5.5 years
- American pika with 7 years
Animals with the same weight as a White-tailed rat
What other animals weight around 86 grams (0.19 lbs)?
- Guinean gerbil weighting 103 grams
- Target rat weighting 70 grams
- Long-tailed hopping mouse weighting 100 grams
- Southern flying squirrel weighting 72 grams
- Lowland mosaic-tailed rat weighting 85 grams
- Wetzel’s climbing mouse weighting 89 grams
- Allen’s chipmunk weighting 89 grams
- Taiga vole weighting 92 grams
- Aegialomys xanthaeolus weighting 79 grams
- Highveld gerbil weighting 89 grams