It is hard to guess what a Botta’s pocket gopher weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Botta’s pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) on average weights 123 grams (0.27 lbs).
The Botta’s pocket gopher is from the family Geomyidae (genus: Thomomys). It is usually born with about 3 grams (0.01 lbs). They can live for up to 4.5 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 15.6 cm (0′ 7″). On average, Botta’s pocket gophers can have babies 2 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.
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:
- Merriam’s pocket gopher with a weight of 420 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher with a weight of 302 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher with a weight of 403 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher with a weight of 150 grams
- Southeastern pocket gopher with a weight of 201 grams
- Mazama pocket gopher with a weight of 93 grams
- Oaxacan pocket gopher with a weight of 499 grams
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher with a weight of 267 grams
- Underwood’s pocket gopher with a weight of 250 grams
- Michoacan pocket gopher with a weight of 474 grams
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:
- Sanborn’s squirrel bringing 136 grams to the scale
- Sado mole bringing 131 grams to the scale
- Brazilian spiny tree-rat bringing 108 grams to the scale
- Coruro bringing 101 grams to the scale
- Mount Pirri isthmus rat bringing 138 grams to the scale
- Northern pika bringing 120 grams to the scale
- Guinean gerbil bringing 103 grams to the scale
- African groove-toothed rat bringing 111 grams to the scale
- Ethiopian narrow-headed rat bringing 144 grams to the scale
- Sooretamys bringing 144 grams to the scale
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:
- Masked flying fox with a size of 13.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Whitehead’s spiny rat with a size of 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Silvery mole-rat with a size of 15.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Thomas’s rope squirrel with a size of 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Sierra Madre ground squirrel with a size of 17.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- Eastern mole with a size of 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Small Japanese mole with a size of 13.9 cm (0′ 6″)
- Asian garden dormouse with a size of 13.7 cm (0′ 6″)
- Banks flying fox with a size of 14.7 cm (0′ 6″)
- Siberian flying squirrel with a size of 16 cm (0′ 7″)
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:
- Groundhog
- Talas tuco-tuco
- Creek groove-toothed swamp rat
- Siberian zokor
- Oligoryzomys longicaudatus
- Nolthenius’s long-tailed climbing mouse
- Pacific shrew
- Desert pygmy mouse
- North African gerbil
- Giant kangaroo rat
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:
- Berdmore’s ground squirrel with an average maximal age of 4.25 years
- Arctic lemming with an average maximal age of 3.75 years
- White-bellied duiker with an average maximal age of 5.25 years
- Hylaeamys megacephalus with an average maximal age of 3.75 years
- Northern common cuscus with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Eurasian harvest mouse with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Derby’s woolly opossum with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Northern pocket gopher with an average maximal age of 3.75 years
- Desert hedgehog with an average maximal age of 4.5 years
- Steppe pika with an average maximal age of 4 years