It is hard to guess what a Gould’s mouse weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Gould’s mouse (Pseudomys gouldii) on average weights 49 grams (0.11 lbs).
The Gould’s mouse is from the family Muridae (genus: Pseudomys). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 10.8 cm (0′ 5″).
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.
Gould’s mouse (Pseudomys gouldii) lived in eastern inland Australia, and was named after John Gould. It was slightly smaller than a black rat, and quite social, living in small family groups that sheltered by day in a nest of soft, dry grass in a burrow. It usually dug burrows at a depth of 15 cm under bushes. Gould’s mouse was common and widespread before European settlement, but disappeared rapidly after the 1840s, perhaps being exterminated by cats. Alternatively, it may have been out-competed by the introduced rats and mice, succumbed to introduced diseases or been affected by grazing stock and changed fire regimes. Despite extensive survey work in its known range, the last specimens were collected in 1856–57, and it is presumed to be extinct.There is some speculation that this species was in fact an eastern population of the Shark Bay mouse (Pseudomys fieldi). Once the Alice Springs mouse was thought to be extinct but with genetic testing in 1998 scientists confirmed that the Alice Springs mouse was also the Shark Bay mouse, and this could also one day happen between Gould’s mouse and the Shark Bay mouse.
Animals of the same family as a Gould’s mouse
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Japen rat with a weight of 380 grams
- Nectomys squamipes with a weight of 185 grams
- Blanford’s rat with 2 babies per litter
- Allen’s woodrat with a weight of 368 grams
- Mediterranean pine vole with a weight of 22 grams
- Southern giant slender-tailed cloud rat bringing 1.84 kilos (4.06 lbs) to the scale
- Tondano rat with 4 babies per litter
- Champion’s tree mouse with a weight of 50 grams
- Nicaraguan harvest mouse with a size of 7.1 cm (0′ 3″)
- Euryoryzomys nitidus with a weight of 55 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Gould’s mouse
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Pseudomys gouldii:
- Lesser spear-nosed bat bringing 41 grams to the scale
- Dusky slender opossum bringing 46 grams to the scale
- Phillips’s kangaroo rat bringing 41 grams to the scale
- Dwarf fat-tailed jerboa bringing 52 grams to the scale
- Colorado chipmunk bringing 57 grams to the scale
- Asian house shrew bringing 43 grams to the scale
- Aratathomas’s yellow-shouldered bat bringing 49 grams to the scale
- Chiapan deer mouse bringing 40 grams to the scale
- Golden spiny mouse bringing 42 grams to the scale
- Broad-striped dasyure bringing 54 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Gould’s mouse
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Gould’s mouse:
- Chinese dormouse with a size of 9.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Papua grassland mosaic-tailed rat with a size of 10.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Dune hairy-footed gerbil with a size of 9.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Northwestern deer mouse with a size of 9.3 cm (0′ 4″)
- Long-tailed mouse with a size of 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Southern grasshopper mouse with a size of 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Hottentot golden mole with a size of 12.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Golden spiny mouse with a size of 11.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Visagie’s golden mole with a size of 10.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Grassland mosaic-tailed rat with a size of 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)