How big does a Gray-tailed vole get? Here is an overview over the average adult age:
A grown Gray-tailed vole (Microtus canicaudus) reaches an average size of 11 cm (0′ 5″).
When born, they have an average size of 0 cm (0′ 0″). A full-grown exemplary reaches roughly 29 grams (0.06 lbs). On birth they have a weight of 2 grams (0 lbs). A Gray-tailed vole has 4 babies at once. The Gray-tailed vole (genus: Microtus) 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 gray-tailed vole (Microtus canicaudus) also known as the gray-tailed meadow vole or gray-tailed meadow mouse, is a rodent in the genus Microtus (small-eared “meadow voles”) of the family Cricetidae. Voles are small mammals, and this species lies roughly in the middle of their size range. First collected in 1895, it is endemic to the Willamette Valley, Oregon, and Clark County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Historically, they were found in the prairie areas of the Valley and, though many of these areas have been converted for agricultural purposes, these animals remain common. For reasons that remain unclear, vole population densities in any area may fluctuate widely from season to season and year to year. They are preyed upon by owls, hawks, and carnivorous mammals, and their parasites include fleas and ticks. These voles build burrows and complex tunnel networks, which they sometimes share with other burrowing animals. Relatively little is known about their behavior in the wild, because they are elusive and unlikely to enter traps.
Animals of the same family as a Gray-tailed vole
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Brown rat with 8 babies per litter
- Indomalayan pencil-tailed tree mouse with 2 babies per litter
- Isabel naked-tailed rat with a size of 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Large Luzon forest rat with a size of 24 cm (0′ 10″)
- Harrington’s rat with a weight of 90 grams
- Gerbil mouse with 4 babies per litter
- Andean vesper mouse with 4 babies per litter
- Macmillan’s thicket rat with a weight of 37 grams
- Lindbergh’s grass mouse with a weight of 26 grams
- Chestnut white-bellied rat with 4 babies per litter
Animals with the same size as a Gray-tailed vole
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Gray-tailed vole:
- Aberdare mole shrew with a size of 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Gray-bellied caenolestid with a size of 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Coxing’s white-bellied rat with a size of 13 cm (0′ 6″)
- Champion’s tree mouse with a size of 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Western mouse with a size of 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Northern collared lemming with a size of 11.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Cameroon soft-furred mouse with a size of 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Sagebrush vole with a size of 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Cactus mouse with a size of 9.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Mexican deer mouse with a size of 12.4 cm (0′ 5″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Gray-tailed vole
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Gray-tailed vole:
- Large bamboo rat
- Transcaucasian mole vole
- Sierra Madre ground squirrel
- Desert pocket gopher
- Beaded wood mouse
- Lesser short-tailed gerbil
- Northern bog lemming
- Least chipmunk
- Black-tailed gerbil
- Akodon azarae
Animals with the same weight as a Gray-tailed vole
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Microtus canicaudus:
- Texas mouse bringing 27 grams to the scale
- Olrog’s chaco mouse bringing 32 grams to the scale
- Yellow steppe lemming bringing 26 grams to the scale
- Pygmy mouse lemur bringing 31 grams to the scale
- Greater long-nosed bat bringing 24 grams to the scale
- Least gerbil bringing 26 grams to the scale
- São Paulo grass mouse bringing 27 grams to the scale
- Myotis vivesi bringing 25 grams to the scale
- Graphiurus hueti bringing 30 grams to the scale
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum bringing 34 grams to the scale