It is hard to guess what a Desert rat-kangaroo weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Desert rat-kangaroo (Caloprymnus campestris) on average weights 929 grams (2.05 lbs).
The Desert rat-kangaroo is from the family Potoroidae (genus: Caloprymnus). They can live for up to 13 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 6.9 cm (0′ 3″). Usually, Desert rat-kangaroos have 1 babies per litter.
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 desert rat-kangaroo (Caloprymnus campestris), also called the buff-nosed rat-kangaroo, plains rat-kangaroo or oolacunta, is an extinct small hopping marsupial endemic to desert regions of Central Australia. It was discovered in the early 1840s and described by John Gould in London in 1843, on the basis of three specimens sent to him by George Grey, the governor of South Australia at the time.
Animals of the same family as a Desert rat-kangaroo
We found other animals of the Potoroidae family:
- Boodie bringing 1.45 kilos (3.2 lbs) to the scale
- Broad-faced potoroo with a weight of 499 grams
- Musky rat-kangaroo with a weight of 535 grams
- Long-footed potoroo bringing 1.84 kilos (4.06 lbs) to the scale
- Eastern bettong bringing 1.66 kilos (3.66 lbs) to the scale
- Gilbert’s potoroo bringing 1.57 kilos (3.46 lbs) to the scale
- Northern bettong bringing 1.26 kilos (2.78 lbs) to the scale
- Woylie bringing 1.22 kilos (2.69 lbs) to the scale
- Rufous rat-kangaroo bringing 2.81 kilos (6.19 lbs) to the scale
- Long-nosed potoroo bringing 1.07 kilos (2.36 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a Desert rat-kangaroo
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Caloprymnus campestris:
- Gray-bellied night monkey bringing 873 grams to the scale
- Guianan squirrel monkey bringing 750 grams to the scale
- American mink bringing 904 grams to the scale
- Green acouchi bringing 966 grams to the scale
- Potto with a weight of 1.08 kilos (2.38 lbs)
- Black squirrel monkey bringing 784 grams to the scale
- Namaqua slender mongoose bringing 750 grams to the scale
- Tres Marias rabbit bringing 964 grams to the scale
- Long-nosed potoroo with a weight of 1.07 kilos (2.36 lbs)
- Giant naked-tailed rat bringing 745 grams to the scale
Animals with the same litter size as a Desert rat-kangaroo
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Desert rat-kangaroo:
- Mountain gazelle
- Robert’s snow vole
- Alpaca
- Spectral tarsier
- Northern plains gray langur
- Lesser sheath-tailed bat
- Three-striped night monkey
- Black-bearded tomb bat
- Whiptail wallaby
- Alpine ibex
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Desert rat-kangaroo
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Desert rat-kangaroo:
- Long-tailed goral with an average maximal age of 13.17 years
- Greater dwarf lemur with an average maximal age of 15 years
- Striped polecat with an average maximal age of 13.33 years
- Quokka with an average maximal age of 12 years
- Rock hyrax with an average maximal age of 14 years
- Capybara with an average maximal age of 12 years
- Arabian gazelle with an average maximal age of 11.25 years
- Speke’s gazelle with an average maximal age of 12.67 years
- Common treeshrew with an average maximal age of 12.42 years
- Long-nosed potoroo with an average maximal age of 12 years