What is the maximal age a American water shrew reaches?
An adult American water shrew (Sorex palustris) usually gets as old as 1.5 years.
American water shrews are around 21 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 6 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 4 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Soricidae family (genus: Sorex), a American water shrew caries out around 5 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 2 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 7.4 cm (0′ 3″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
The American water shrew (Sorex palustris) or northern water shrew, is found in the nearctic faunal region located throughout the mountain ranges of northern United States and in Canada and Alaska.
Animals of the same family as a American water shrew
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Soricidae):
- Piebald shrew with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Southeastern shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Chinese water shrew getting as big as 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Lowe’s shrew getting as big as 6.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Makwassie musk shrew bringing the scale to 6 grams
- Southeast Asian shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Grant’s forest shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- East African highland shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Buettikofer’s shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Big Mexican small-eared shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that reach the same age as American water shrew
With an average age of 1.5 years, American water shrew are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Southern red-backed vole usually reaching 1.67 years
- Atlantic bamboo rat usually reaching 1.58 years
- Common yellow-toothed cavy usually reaching 1.75 years
- Crawford’s gray shrew usually reaching 1.25 years
- Alpine shrew usually reaching 1.25 years
- Campbell’s dwarf hamster usually reaching 1.75 years
- Panamanian spiny pocket mouse usually reaching 1.75 years
- Long-tailed planigale usually reaching 1.25 years
- White-eared opossum usually reaching 1.67 years
- Himalayan mole usually reaching 1.5 years
Animals with the same number of babies American water shrew
The same number of babies at once (5) are born by:
- Star-nosed mole
- Gray-bellied pygmy mouse
- White-tailed prairie dog
- Vagrant shrew
- Townsend’s vole
- Cliff chipmunk
- Middendorf’s vole
- Four-striped grass mouse
- Grey dwarf hamster
- Lowland streaked tenrec
Weighting as much as American water shrew
A fully grown American water shrew reaches around 13 grams (0.03 lbs). So do these animals:
- Marsh shrew with 15 grams
- Glacier Bay water shrew with 14 grams
- New Guinean planigale with 14 grams
- Malayan slit-faced bat with 14 grams
- Coastal sheath-tailed bat with 12 grams
- Chiriqui brown mouse with 15 grams
- Talamancan yellow-shouldered bat with 11 grams
- Western broad-nosed bat with 11 grams
- Usambara shrew with 11 grams
- Microryzomys minutus with 13 grams
Animals as big as a American water shrew
Those animals grow as big as a American water shrew:
- Gansu shrew with 8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Ghost-faced bat with 6.6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Red fruit bat with 6.1 cm (0′ 3″)
- Panamint kangaroo rat with 6 cm (0′ 3″)
- San Diego pocket mouse with 8.3 cm (0′ 4″)
- Narrow-skulled pocket mouse with 8.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Crowned shrew with 7.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Bicolored musk shrew with 6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Northern pygmy mouse with 6.4 cm (0′ 3″)
- Pygmy short-tailed opossum with 7 cm (0′ 3″)