How big does a Dusky hopping mouse get? Here is an overview over the average adult age:
A grown Dusky hopping mouse (Notomys fuscus) reaches an average size of 12 cm (0′ 5″).
When born, they have an average size of 0 cm (0′ 0″). A full-grown exemplary reaches roughly 39 grams (0.09 lbs). A Dusky hopping mouse has 3 babies at once. The Dusky hopping mouse (genus: Notomys) is a member of the family Muridae.
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 dusky hopping mouse (Notomys fuscus) is an Australian native rodent specialised for the deep desert. Like all hopping mice it has strong front teeth, a long tail, dark eyes, big ears, well-developed haunches and very long, narrow hind feet. It weighs between 20 and 50 g (0.71 and 1.76 oz). (Compare with the common house mouse, at 10 to 25 g (0.35 to 0.88 oz).)The dusky hopping mouse has four pads on its soles. Colouration varies but tends to be pale orange, sometimes with grey tinges, and white underneath. Fur is short, fine, and soft. The long tail ends in a dark brush.Breeding is opportunistic, depending on conditions rather than the time of year. Females have four teats and the young reach maturity in about 70 days.The dusky hopping mouse is classified as vulnerable. Old records show that it once occupied a large area of Central Australia including parts of Queensland, New South Wales as far as Victoria, the Northern Territory and South Australia but it now appears to be restricted to a small number of locations in the Strzelecki Desert and nearby regions in the South Australia–Queensland border area. It is possible that some survive in the Northern Territory also, though surveys in 2000 and 2002 did not find any.The remaining populations are concentrated in sandy habitats which have consolidated dunes and perennial vegetation and are close to lakes or drainage lines. (Bear it in mind that “lakes” in Central Australia are normally dry, often for years on end: permanent surface water is very unusual.) Dusky hopping mice are nocturnal and gregarious. During the days, they shelter in very deep burrow systems. The access shafts are about 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter and go straight down for about 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in).The reasons for the decline of the dusky hopping mouse are not fully understood, but are assumed to be competition for food with introduced species, particularly cattle and rabbits, and predation by introduced cats and foxes. Decline due to predation by introduced predators appears to be a factor, since it has been found that this species is up to 40 times as abundant in areas where dingos are present, due to the dingo’s competitive exclusion of foxes.
Animals of the same family as a Dusky hopping mouse
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Steppe field mouse with a weight of 20 grams
- Target rat with 2 babies per litter
- Darling Downs hopping mouse with a weight of 89 grams
- Allen’s woodrat with a size of 22.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Pale gerbil with 4 babies per litter
- Short-tailed hopping mouse with a size of 14.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Macmillan’s thicket rat with a weight of 37 grams
- Stein’s paramelomys with a size of 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Bushveld gerbil with 4 babies per litter
- Natal multimammate mouse with a weight of 62 grams
Animals with the same size as a Dusky hopping mouse
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Dusky hopping mouse:
- Asian house shrew with a size of 12.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Pygmy mouse lemur with a size of 14.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Angolan rousette with a size of 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Panama slender opossum with a size of 11.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Asian garden dormouse with a size of 13.7 cm (0′ 6″)
- Tete veld aethomys with a size of 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Lowland mosaic-tailed rat with a size of 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Sagebrush vole with a size of 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Serra do Mar grass mouse with a size of 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Eastern rock elephant shrew with a size of 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Dusky hopping mouse
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (3) as a Dusky hopping mouse:
- Forest dormouse
- Temminck’s mouse
- Stella wood mouse
- Savanna gerbil
- Allen’s squirrel
- Shipton’s mountain cavy
- Striped hog-nosed skunk
- Smoky white-toothed shrew
- Collared pika
- Crab-eating fox
Animals with the same weight as a Dusky hopping mouse
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Notomys fuscus:
- Rufous-bellied bolo mouse bringing 32 grams to the scale
- Mexican vole bringing 34 grams to the scale
- Temminck’s flying squirrel bringing 43 grams to the scale
- Tullberg’s soft-furred mouse bringing 37 grams to the scale
- Mexican deer mouse bringing 42 grams to the scale
- Akodon sylvanus bringing 39 grams to the scale
- Jackson’s soft-furred mouse bringing 39 grams to the scale
- Oligoryzomys nigripes bringing 34 grams to the scale
- Northern grass mouse bringing 44 grams to the scale
- Luzon Cordillera forest mouse bringing 34 grams to the scale