How big does a Camas pocket gopher get? Here is an overview over the average adult age:
A grown Camas pocket gopher (Thomomys bulbivorus) reaches an average size of 19.9 cm (0′ 8″).
When born, they have an average size of 0 cm (0′ 0″). A full-grown exemplary reaches roughly 360 grams (0.79 lbs). On birth they have a weight of 6 grams (0.01 lbs). Talking about reproduction, Camas pocket gophers have 4 babies about 1 times per year. The Camas 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.
The camas pocket gopher (Thomomys bulbivorus), also known as the camas rat or Willamette Valley gopher, is a rodent, the largest member in the genus Thomomys, of the family Geomyidae. First described in 1829, it is endemic to the Willamette Valley of northwestern Oregon in the United States. The herbivorous gopher forages for vegetable and plant matter, which it collects in large, fur-lined, external cheek pouches. Surplus food is hoarded in an extensive system of tunnels. The dull-brown-to-lead-gray coat changes color and texture over the year. The mammal’s characteristically large, protuberant incisors are well adapted for use in tunnel construction, particularly in the hard clay soils of the Willamette Valley. The gophers make chattering sounds with their teeth; males and females make purring (or crooning) sounds when they are together, and the young make twittering sounds. Born toothless, blind and hairless, the young grow rapidly before being weaned at about six weeks of age.Although the camas pocket gopher is fiercely defensive when cornered, it may become tame in captivity. While population trends are generally stable, threats to the species’ survival include urbanization, habitat conversion for agricultural use and active attempts at eradication with trapping and poisons. It is prey for raptors and carnivorous mammals, and host to several parasitic arthropods and worms. Scientists believe that the gopher’s evolutionary history was disrupted when the Missoula Floods washed over the Willamette Valley at the end of the last ice age. The floods almost completely inundated its geographic range, which may have caused a genetic bottleneck as survivors repopulated the region after the waters receded.
Animals of the same family as a Camas pocket gopher
We found other animals of the Geomyidae family:
- Desert pocket gopher with a size of 17.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- Baird’s pocket gopher with a size of 15 cm (0′ 6″)
- Texas pocket gopher with a size of 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Southern pocket gopher with 2 babies per litter
- Smoky pocket gopher with a size of 21.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Big pocket gopher with a weight of 499 grams
- Central Texas pocket gopher with a size of 16.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Tropical pocket gopher with a size of 17.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- Darien pocket gopher with a weight of 437 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher with a size of 19.2 cm (0′ 8″)
Animals with the same size as a Camas pocket gopher
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Camas pocket gopher:
- New Britain naked-backed fruit bat with a size of 16.1 cm (0′ 7″)
- Short-footed Luzon tree rat with a size of 20 cm (0′ 8″)
- Altai mole with a size of 16.9 cm (0′ 7″)
- Eastern woodrat with a size of 21.2 cm (0′ 9″)
- Reddish tuco-tuco with a size of 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Green bush squirrel with a size of 19.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Desert hedgehog with a size of 18.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Fire-footed rope squirrel with a size of 20.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Blazed Luzon shrew-rat with a size of 19.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Brazilian squirrel with a size of 17.2 cm (0′ 7″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Camas pocket gopher
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Camas pocket gopher:
- Spermophilus relictus
- Geata mouse shrew
- Tien Shan red-backed vole
- Northern pocket gopher
- Black-tailed prairie dog
- Typical striped grass mouse
- Utah prairie dog
- Large New Guinea spiny rat
- Ethiopian white-footed mouse
- Greater hamster-rat
Animals with the same weight as a Camas pocket gopher
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Thomomys bulbivorus:
- Derby’s woolly opossum bringing 328 grams to the scale
- Gilliard’s flying fox bringing 406 grams to the scale
- Mindanao treeshrew bringing 301 grams to the scale
- San Luis tuco-tuco bringing 400 grams to the scale
- Southern needle-clawed bushbaby bringing 296 grams to the scale
- Southern tuco-tuco bringing 403 grams to the scale
- Lesser bilby bringing 364 grams to the scale
- Eastern small-toothed rat bringing 357 grams to the scale
- Sulawesi naked-backed fruit bat bringing 301 grams to the scale
- Tropical pocket gopher bringing 350 grams to the scale