It is hard to guess what a Bristle-spined rat weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Bristle-spined rat (Chaetomys subspinosus) on average weights 1.3 kg (2.87 lbs).
The Bristle-spined rat is from the family Echimyidae (genus: Chaetomys). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 60 cm (2′ 0″).
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 bristle-spined rat (Chaetomys subspinosus) is an arboreal rodent from Atlantic forest in eastern Brazil. Also known as the bristle-spined porcupine or thin-spined porcupine, it is the only member of the genus Chaetomys and the subfamily Chaetomyinae. It was officially described in 1818, but rarely sighted since, until December 1986, when two specimens – one a pregnant female – were found in the vicinity of Valencia in Bahia. Since then it has been recorded at several localities in eastern Brazil, from Sergipe to Espírito Santo (there are no recent records from Rio de Janeiro), but it remains rare and threatened due to habitat loss, poaching and roadkills.
Animals of the same family as a Bristle-spined rat
We found other animals of the Echimyidae family:
- Boyacá spiny rat with a weight of 284 grams
- Atlantic bamboo rat with a weight of 600 grams
- Giant Atlantic tree-rat with a weight of 502 grams
- Short-furred Atlantic tree-rat with a weight of 439 grams
- Gray-footed spiny rat with a weight of 284 grams
- Colombian soft-furred spiny rat with a weight of 394 grams
- Golden Atlantic tree-rat with a weight of 243 grams
- Long-tailed spiny rat with a weight of 205 grams
- Guyenne spiny rat with a weight of 315 grams
- Mouse-tailed Atlantic spiny rat with a weight of 284 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Bristle-spined rat
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Chaetomys subspinosus:
- Black-headed night monkey with a weight of 1.06 kilos (2.34 lbs)
- Rufous hare-wallaby with a weight of 1.41 kilos (3.11 lbs)
- Northern bettong with a weight of 1.26 kilos (2.78 lbs)
- Thomas’s flying squirrel with a weight of 1.43 kilos (3.15 lbs)
- Hainan hare with a weight of 1.52 kilos (3.35 lbs)
- Llanos long-nosed armadillo with a weight of 1.15 kilos (2.54 lbs)
- Spotted giant flying squirrel with a weight of 1.04 kilos (2.29 lbs)
- Clara’s echymipera with a weight of 1.2 kilos (2.65 lbs)
- Haussa genet with a weight of 1.4 kilos (3.09 lbs)
- Hoffmanns’s titi with a weight of 1.07 kilos (2.36 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Bristle-spined rat
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Bristle-spined rat:
- Tana River mangabey with a size of 51 cm (1′ 9″)
- Bay cat with a size of 55 cm (1′ 10″)
- Small Indian civet with a size of 54 cm (1′ 10″)
- Tenkile with a size of 61.6 cm (2′ 1″)
- Northern white-cheeked gibbon with a size of 54.5 cm (1′ 10″)
- Pale-throated sloth with a size of 54.8 cm (1′ 10″)
- Stump-tailed macaque with a size of 60 cm (2′ 0″)
- Hamadryas baboon with a size of 67.5 cm (2′ 3″)
- Bengal fox with a size of 52.3 cm (1′ 9″)
- Drill (animal) with a size of 70 cm (2′ 4″)