It is hard to guess what a Gunnison’s prairie dog weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Gunnison’s prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) on average weights 798 grams (1.76 lbs).
The Gunnison’s prairie dog is from the family Sciuridae (genus: Cynomys). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 27.9 cm (0′ 11″). On average, Gunnison’s 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.
Gunnison’s prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) is one of five species of the prairie dog. This species belongs to the squirrel family of rodents, and are predominantly related to the North American and Eurasian ground squirrels. Gunnison’s prairie dogs are primarily distributed in the Four Corners region of the United States.
Animals of the same family as a Gunnison’s prairie dog
We found other animals of the Sciuridae family:
- Mexican ground squirrel with a weight of 177 grams
- Western gray squirrel with a weight of 704 grams
- Little ground squirrel with a weight of 174 grams
- Southern flying squirrel with a weight of 72 grams
- Red bush squirrel with a weight of 365 grams
- Horse-tailed squirrel with a weight of 358 grams
- Palawan montane squirrel with a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Gray-cheeked flying squirrel with a weight of 63 grams
- Selangor pygmy flying squirrel with a weight of 30 grams
- Sierra Madre ground squirrel with a weight of 207 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Gunnison’s prairie dog
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Cynomys gunnisoni:
- Maned rat bringing 755 grams to the scale
- Hispaniolan solenodon bringing 893 grams to the scale
- Guinea pig bringing 728 grams to the scale
- Eastern white-eared giant rat bringing 867 grams to the scale
- Guianan squirrel monkey bringing 750 grams to the scale
- Nancy Ma’s night monkey bringing 791 grams to the scale
- Stump-tailed porcupine bringing 832 grams to the scale
- Red acouchi bringing 949 grams to the scale
- Cuban solenodon bringing 806 grams to the scale
- Angolan kusimanse bringing 700 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Gunnison’s prairie dog
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Gunnison’s prairie dog:
- Moluccan flying fox with a size of 25.3 cm (0′ 10″)
- Yellow-bellied weasel with a size of 26 cm (0′ 11″)
- Epixerus with a size of 28.8 cm (1′ 0″)
- Black giant squirrel with a size of 31.9 cm (1′ 1″)
- Koslov’s pika with a size of 24 cm (0′ 10″)
- Giant white-tailed rat with a size of 28.3 cm (1′ 0″)
- White-footed tamarin with a size of 24 cm (0′ 10″)
- Narrow-striped mongoose with a size of 31.2 cm (1′ 1″)
- Collie’s squirrel with a size of 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Common degu with a size of 28 cm (1′ 0″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Gunnison’s prairie dog
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Gunnison’s prairie dog: