How many baby Woolly mouse opossums are in a litter?
A Woolly mouse opossum (Micoureus demerarae) usually gives birth to around 6 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 1.5 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Didelphidae family (genus: Micoureus). An adult Woolly mouse opossum grows up to a size of 16.8 cm (0′ 7″).
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 woolly mouse opossum or long-furred woolly mouse opossum (Marmosa demerarae), known locally as the cuíca, is a South American marsupial of the family Didelphidae. Its range includes central Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, eastern Peru, northern Bolivia, and northern Brazil. It was formerly assigned to the genus Micoureus, which was made a subgenus of Marmosa in 2009.It generally lives in tropical, humid forest below 1,200 meter elevation as in the Andes and surrounding lowlands. It is often found on plantations or other disturbed areas as well as evergreen forests.
Other animals of the family Didelphidae
Woolly mouse opossum is a member of the Didelphidae, as are these animals:
- White-bellied woolly mouse opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Sepia short-tailed opossum weighting only 36 grams
- Linnaeus’s mouse opossum with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Virginia opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Grayish mouse opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Southern red-sided opossum weighting only 48 grams
- Alston’s mouse opossum weighting only 132 grams
- Gray slender opossum weighting only 54 grams
- Heavy-browed mouse opossum weighting only 47 grams
- Handley’s slender opossum weighting only 30 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Woolly mouse opossum
Those animals also give birth to 6 babies at once:
- Little red kaluta
- Arctic ground squirrel
- Northern quoll
- Bobak marmot
- Wyoming pocket gopher
- Muskrat
- Alaskan hare
- Desert dormouse
- Siberian brown lemming
- Günther’s vole
Animals with the same weight as a Woolly mouse opossum
What other animals weight around 107 grams (0.24 lbs)?
- Definitive leaf-eared mouse weighting 89 grams
- European water vole weighting 120 grams
- Candango mouse weighting 97 grams
- Pink fairy armadillo weighting 86 grams
- Tristram’s jird weighting 112 grams
- Carpentarian rock rat weighting 123 grams
- Dent’s vlei rat weighting 120 grams
- Vinogradov’s jird weighting 117 grams
- Black-tailed gerbil weighting 123 grams
- Dusky spiny tree-rat weighting 108 grams
Animals with the same size as a Woolly mouse opossum
Also reaching around 16.8 cm (0′ 7″) in size do these animals:
- Dusky field rat gets as big as 15.9 cm (0′ 7″)
- Pygmy treeshrew gets as big as 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Biak glider gets as big as 14.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Black-tailed mosaic-tailed rat gets as big as 13.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Japanese mole gets as big as 14.3 cm (0′ 6″)
- Broad-toothed mouse gets as big as 16.6 cm (0′ 7″)
- Botta’s pocket gopher gets as big as 15.6 cm (0′ 7″)
- Allen’s cotton rat gets as big as 17 cm (0′ 7″)
- Pygmy mouse lemur gets as big as 14.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Broad-toothed mouse gets as big as 16.6 cm (0′ 7″)