This article is from the Fall 2002 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Nichole Royer

Rodents are a very important part of the ecosystem. They are a very important part of the diet for many carnivores. Because of this, many rodents can produce lots of babies in a very short time. If there is lots of food available, a female Norway rat can have 6–9 babies every 3 weeks for her entire life. That’s a lot of rats!

Not all rodents have this many babies. The larger rodents usually have much less. Capybaras usually have 4 or less babies each year, and beavers only have 1 or 2.