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Animal Age

How old does a Plains rat get? (age expectancy)

What is the maximal age a Plains rat reaches?

An adult Plains rat (Pseudomys australis) usually gets as old as 5.58 years.

Plains rats are around 31 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 4 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 1 cm (0′ 1″). As a member of the Muridae family (genus: Pseudomys), their offspring is 3 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 12.1 cm (0′ 5″).

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.

A Plains rat gets as old as 5.58 years

The plains rat (Pseudomys australis), also known as the plains mouse, is a conilurine rodent native to arid and semi-arid Australia. Referred to as the pallyoora or yarlie by Indigenous groups, the plains rat was once widely distributed across central Australia, including north-west New South Wales and south-west Queensland; however, habitat degradation due to grazing, introduced predators and drought have contributed to its decline. Consequently, the plains rat has been listed as ‘presumed extinct’ in New South Wales and Victoria, ‘endangered’ in the Northern Territory and Queensland and ‘vulnerable’ in Western Australia and South Australia. While recent research has indicated the presence of the plains rat in areas such as the Fowlers Gap and Strzelecki Desert regions of New South Wales and within the Diamantina National Park in Queensland, there are only five sub-populations currently recognised nationally, none of which coincide with recent discoveries of the plains rat. As the current population trend of the plains rat has been listed as ‘declining’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the IUCN conservation status for the species is ‘vulnerable’.

Animals of the same family as a Plains rat

Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Muridae):

Animals that reach the same age as Plains rat

With an average age of 5.58 years, Plains rat are in good companionship of the following animals:

Animals with the same number of babies Plains rat

The same number of babies at once (3) are born by:

Weighting as much as Plains rat

A fully grown Plains rat reaches around 53 grams (0.12 lbs). So do these animals:

Animals as big as a Plains rat

Those animals grow as big as a Plains rat: