It is hard to guess what a Black-tailed prairie dog weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) on average weights 797 grams (1.76 lbs).
The Black-tailed prairie dog is from the family Sciuridae (genus: Cynomys). It is usually born with about 15 grams (0.03 lbs). They can live for up to 8.5 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 29.4 cm (1′ 0″). On average, Black-tailed prairie dogs can have babies 1 times per year with a litter size of 4.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) is a rodent of the family Sciuridae found in the Great Plains of North America from about the United States-Canada border to the United States-Mexico border. Unlike some other prairie dogs, these animals do not truly hibernate. The black-tailed prairie dog can be seen above ground in midwinter. A black-tailed prairie dog town in Texas was reported to cover 25,000 sq mi (64,000 km2) and included 400,000,000 individuals. Prior to habitat destruction, this species may have been the most abundant prairie dog in central North America. This species was one of two described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the journals and diaries of their expedition.
Animals of the same family as a Black-tailed prairie dog
We found other animals of the Sciuridae family:
- Shrew-faced squirrel with a weight of 230 grams
- Himalayan striped squirrel with a weight of 45 grams
- Uinta chipmunk with a weight of 51 grams
- Fire-footed rope squirrel with a weight of 243 grams
- Thomas’s rope squirrel with a weight of 224 grams
- Tarbagan marmot with 4 babies per litter
- Harris’s antelope squirrel with a weight of 127 grams
- Utah prairie dog with a weight of 900 grams
- Long-tailed ground squirrel with a weight of 743 grams
- Gray-cheeked flying squirrel with a weight of 63 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Black-tailed prairie dog
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Cynomys ludovicianus:
- North African hedgehog bringing 931 grams to the scale
- Northern sportive lemur bringing 760 grams to the scale
- Angolan kusimanse bringing 700 grams to the scale
- Small-toothed sportive lemur bringing 955 grams to the scale
- Livingstone’s fruit bat bringing 733 grams to the scale
- Hispaniolan solenodon bringing 893 grams to the scale
- Eastern white-eared giant rat bringing 867 grams to the scale
- Bare-eared squirrel monkey bringing 888 grams to the scale
- Long-nosed short-tailed opossum bringing 765 grams to the scale
- Gunnison’s prairie dog bringing 798 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Black-tailed prairie dog
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Black-tailed prairie dog:
- Grey-headed flying fox with a size of 27.2 cm (0′ 11″)
- Forest giant squirrel with a size of 29.1 cm (1′ 0″)
- Clara’s echymipera with a size of 34.1 cm (1′ 2″)
- Crowned lemur with a size of 35.2 cm (1′ 2″)
- Lyle’s flying fox with a size of 23.7 cm (0′ 10″)
- Common degu with a size of 28 cm (1′ 0″)
- Plush-coated ringtail possum with a size of 33.3 cm (1′ 2″)
- Pichi with a size of 29.7 cm (1′ 0″)
- Rock squirrel with a size of 27.3 cm (0′ 11″)
- Western gray squirrel with a size of 29.4 cm (1′ 0″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Black-tailed prairie dog
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Black-tailed prairie dog:
- Greater white-toothed shrew
- Hoary marmot
- Rudd’s mouse
- American red squirrel
- Bush dog
- Boehm’s gerbil
- Brown four-eyed opossum
- Tarbagan marmot
- Geata mouse shrew
- Northern pika
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Black-tailed prairie dog
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Black-tailed prairie dog:
- North African hedgehog with an average maximal age of 7 years
- Barbary ground squirrel with an average maximal age of 9 years
- Greater spear-nosed bat with an average maximal age of 10 years
- Stoat with an average maximal age of 7.08 years
- Tasmanian devil with an average maximal age of 8.17 years
- Kowari with an average maximal age of 7 years
- Long-footed potoroo with an average maximal age of 10 years
- Lesser grison with an average maximal age of 7.25 years
- Townsend’s chipmunk with an average maximal age of 7 years
- Rafinesque’s big-eared bat with an average maximal age of 10.08 years