How big does a Botta’s pocket gopher get? Here is an overview over the average adult age:
A grown Botta’s pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) reaches an average size of 15.6 cm (0′ 7″).
When born, they have an average size of 0 cm (0′ 0″). During their lifetime of about 4.5 years, they grow from 3 grams (0.01 lbs) to 123 grams (0.27 lbs). Talking about reproduction, Botta’s pocket gophers have 4 babies about 2 times per year. The Botta’s pocket gopher (genus: Thomomys) is a member of the family Geomyidae.
As a reference: Humans reach an average body size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) while carrying 62 kg (137 lbs). A human woman is pregnant for 280 days (40 weeks) and on average become 75 years old.
Botta’s pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) is a pocket gopher native to western North America. It is also known in some sources as valley pocket gopher, particularly in California. Both the specific and common names of this species honor Paul-Émile Botta, a naturalist and archaeologist who collected mammals in California in 1827 and 1828.
Animals of the same family as a Botta’s pocket gopher
We found other animals of the Geomyidae family:
- Chiriqui pocket gopher with a weight of 650 grams
- Michoacan pocket gopher with a size of 22.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Texas pocket gopher with a size of 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Underwood’s pocket gopher with a weight of 250 grams
- Hispid pocket gopher with 1 babies per litter
- Smoky pocket gopher with a weight of 150 grams
- Baird’s pocket gopher with a size of 15 cm (0′ 6″)
- Central Texas pocket gopher with a size of 16.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Darien pocket gopher with a weight of 437 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher with a weight of 150 grams
Animals with the same size as a Botta’s pocket gopher
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Botta’s pocket gopher:
- Kimberley rock rat with a size of 14.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Long-nosed paramelomys with a size of 17 cm (0′ 7″)
- Marajó short-tailed opossum with a size of 13.4 cm (0′ 6″)
- Sonoma chipmunk with a size of 13.4 cm (0′ 6″)
- Bush vlei rat with a size of 15.3 cm (0′ 7″)
- California chipmunk with a size of 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Eastern rock elephant shrew with a size of 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Northern pocket gopher with a size of 15.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Mazama pocket gopher with a size of 14.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Thomas’s rope squirrel with a size of 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Botta’s pocket gopher
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Botta’s pocket gopher:
- Tarbagan marmot
- Northern pika
- Bat-eared fox
- Nyika climbing mouse
- Large New Guinea spiny rat
- Indian hedgehog
- Visayan warty pig
- Kloss’s mole
- Lesser capybara
- Siberian zokor
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Botta’s pocket gopher
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Botta’s pocket gopher:
- Otter civet with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Hylaeamys megacephalus with an average maximal age of 3.75 years
- Günther’s vole with an average maximal age of 3.83 years
- Meadow jumping mouse with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Eurasian harvest mouse with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Steppe pika with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Woodland thicket rat with an average maximal age of 4.33 years
- Little free-tailed bat with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher with an average maximal age of 4.67 years
- Lesser mole-rat with an average maximal age of 4.5 years
Animals with the same weight as a Botta’s pocket gopher
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Thomomys bottae:
- Magdalena rat bringing 130 grams to the scale
- Kowari bringing 112 grams to the scale
- Gambian epauletted fruit bat bringing 131 grams to the scale
- Edible dormouse bringing 128 grams to the scale
- Ruwenzori otter shrew bringing 112 grams to the scale
- Kemp’s gerbil bringing 100 grams to the scale
- Steppe pika bringing 143 grams to the scale
- Philippine tarsier bringing 116 grams to the scale
- Yellow-haired hill rat bringing 111 grams to the scale
- Western dwarf squirrel bringing 120 grams to the scale