It is hard to guess what a Plains pocket mouse weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Plains pocket mouse (Perognathus flavescens) on average weights 9 grams (0.02 lbs).
The Plains pocket mouse is from the family Heteromyidae (genus: Perognathus). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 6.9 cm (0′ 3″). On average, Plains pocket mouses can have babies 2 times per year with a litter size of 4.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The plains pocket mouse (Perognathus flavescens) is a heteromyid rodent of North America. It ranges from southwestern Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota to northern Texas east of the Rockies, and from northern Utah and Colorado to northern Chihuahua west of the Rockies.It has soft silky fur and grows to be 5 inches (13 cm) long, although nearly half of that is the tail.They often live directly underneath Spanish bayonet or prickly pear plants. They are accustomed to sandy soil and eat mostly seeds, large and small grasses and small leaves of plants. Some food found in their cheek pouches are: seeds of needle grass (Stipa), bind weed, sandbur grass, a small bean (probably Astragalus), and sedge (Cyperus). Even those caught in grain fields usually have their pouches filled with weed seeds. Seeds of two species of pigeon grass, a few other grasses, and wild buckwheat have been found in their burrows.Their breeding season is mainly July to August and the females tend to have 4 embryos at a time. Other information about this animal is scarce. Media related to Perognathus flavescens at Wikimedia Commons
Animals of the same family as a Plains pocket mouse
We found other animals of the Heteromyidae family:
- San Joaquin pocket mouse with a weight of 10 grams
- White-eared pocket mouse with a weight of 23 grams
- Merriam’s pocket mouse with a weight of 6 grams
- Trinidad spiny pocket mouse with a weight of 69 grams
- Gulf Coast kangaroo rat with a weight of 49 grams
- Narrow-skulled pocket mouse with a size of 8.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Great Basin pocket mouse with a weight of 24 grams
- Jaliscan spiny pocket mouse with a weight of 65 grams
- Southern spiny pocket mouse with a weight of 268 grams
- Dark kangaroo mouse with a weight of 12 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Plains pocket mouse
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Perognathus flavescens:
- Chestnut climbing mouse bringing 8 grams to the scale
- Little white-shouldered bat bringing 10 grams to the scale
- Chestnut long-tongued bat bringing 8 grams to the scale
- Ozimops planiceps bringing 9 grams to the scale
- Large-eared horseshoe bat bringing 10 grams to the scale
- Fog shrew bringing 8 grams to the scale
- Glen’s wattled bat bringing 10 grams to the scale
- Bechstein’s bat bringing 9 grams to the scale
- Luzon shrew bringing 10 grams to the scale
- Seminole bat bringing 9 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Plains pocket mouse
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Plains pocket mouse:
- Northern ghost bat with a size of 7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Lowe’s shrew with a size of 6.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Bates’s shrew with a size of 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Peters’s sheath-tailed bat with a size of 5.7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Yellow-winged bat with a size of 6.7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Ranee mouse with a size of 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Delicate vesper mouse with a size of 6.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Lesser mouse-tailed bat with a size of 5.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Greater mouse-tailed bat with a size of 6.1 cm (0′ 3″)
- Taiwanese brown-toothed shrew with a size of 6.7 cm (0′ 3″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Plains pocket mouse
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Plains pocket mouse: