It is hard to guess what a Xerus erythropus weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Xerus erythropus (Xerus erythropus) on average weights 602 grams (1.33 lbs).
The Xerus erythropus is from the family Sciuridae (genus: Xerus). They can live for up to 6 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 31.2 cm (1′ 1″). Usually, Xerus erythropuss have 3 babies per litter.
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.
Xerus erythropus (striped ground squirrel) is a species of squirrel native to Africa. It was first described by Geoffroy in 1803, but the original publication may be unavailable, so that the binomial authority is today more often cited as “Desmarest, 1817”. There are six subspecies. It is a moderately large ground squirrel with sandy-brown or dark-brown fur with a white lateral stripe and whitish underparts. Adults live alone or in pairs in a simple burrow with a central nest, foraging, mostly on the ground, for seeds, nuts and roots, and caching excess food under stones. This is a common species with a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of “least concern”.
Animals of the same family as a Xerus erythropus
We found other animals of the Sciuridae family:
- Smith’s bush squirrel with a weight of 222 grams
- Tarbagan marmot with 4 babies per litter
- Himalayan striped squirrel with a weight of 45 grams
- Boehm’s bush squirrel with a weight of 70 grams
- Mexican fox squirrel with a weight of 697 grams
- Deppe’s squirrel with a weight of 250 grams
- Mentawai squirrel with a weight of 296 grams
- Vordermann’s flying squirrel with a weight of 36 grams
- Indian giant squirrel bringing 1.06 kilos (2.34 lbs) to the scale
- Congo rope squirrel with a weight of 112 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Xerus erythropus
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Xerus erythropus:
- Mountain ground squirrel bringing 625 grams to the scale
- New Guinean quoll bringing 611 grams to the scale
- Brush rabbit bringing 716 grams to the scale
- Forest giant squirrel bringing 630 grams to the scale
- Kashmir flying squirrel bringing 510 grams to the scale
- Musky rat-kangaroo bringing 535 grams to the scale
- New Guinea waterside rat bringing 526 grams to the scale
- Ryukyu flying fox bringing 491 grams to the scale
- Gray-backed sportive lemur bringing 506 grams to the scale
- Squirrel-toothed rat bringing 511 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Xerus erythropus
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Xerus erythropus:
- Abert’s squirrel with a size of 26.9 cm (0′ 11″)
- Florida naked-tailed rat with a size of 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Collie’s squirrel with a size of 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Brown-tailed mongoose with a size of 29.7 cm (1′ 0″)
- Eastern white-eared giant rat with a size of 33.9 cm (1′ 2″)
- New Guinean quoll with a size of 26.9 cm (0′ 11″)
- Golden bandicoot with a size of 35.5 cm (1′ 2″)
- Three-striped night monkey with a size of 35.8 cm (1′ 3″)
- Coppery titi with a size of 35.5 cm (1′ 2″)
- Giant Atlantic tree-rat with a size of 28.2 cm (1′ 0″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Xerus erythropus
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (3) as a Xerus erythropus:
- Black-tailed dasyure
- European mole
- Kashmir flying squirrel
- Bicolored shrew
- Small Indian civet
- Mazama pocket gopher
- Nagtglas’s African dormouse
- Insular vole
- Northern brown bandicoot
- Molina’s grass mouse
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Xerus erythropus
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Xerus erythropus:
- Central African oyan with an average maximal age of 5.33 years
- Orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel with an average maximal age of 7.08 years
- North African hedgehog with an average maximal age of 7 years
- Woylie with an average maximal age of 6.5 years
- Gray short-tailed opossum with an average maximal age of 6 years
- Sandhill dunnart with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Hispid cotton rat with an average maximal age of 5.17 years
- Bridled nail-tail wallaby with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Bank vole with an average maximal age of 4.83 years
- Slender mongoose with an average maximal age of 6 years