It is hard to guess what a Hispaniolan hutia weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Hispaniolan hutia (Plagiodontia aedium) on average weights 1.27 kg (2.8 lbs).
The Hispaniolan hutia is from the family Capromyidae (genus: Plagiodontia). It is usually born with about 105 grams (0.23 lbs). They can live for up to 9.83 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 30 cm (1′ 0″). Usually, Hispaniolan hutias 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 Hispaniolan hutia (Plagiodontia aedium) is one of several hutia (also called zagouti, and jutÃa in Spanish) species to have inhabited at some time the island of Hispaniola (island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic). P. aedium is the only scientifically confirmed extant species of the genus Plagiodontia; other species are either extinct or being debatedly catalogued as P. aedium subspecies. The name Plagiodontia means “oblique tooth” in Greek.
Animals of the same family as a Hispaniolan hutia
We found other animals of the Capromyidae family:
- Desmarest’s hutia bringing 5.2 kilos (11.46 lbs) to the scale
- Bahamian hutia with a weight of 912 grams
- Eared hutia with 1 babies per litter
- Little Swan Island hutia bringing 1.5 kilos (3.31 lbs) to the scale
- Jamaican coney bringing 1.5 kilos (3.31 lbs) to the scale
- Dwarf hutia with 1 babies per litter
- Prehensile-tailed hutia with 1 babies per litter
- Black-tailed hutia with 1 babies per litter
Animals with the same weight as a Hispaniolan hutia
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Plagiodontia aedium:
- Servaline genet with a weight of 1.24 kilos (2.73 lbs)
- Grizzled giant squirrel with a weight of 1.33 kilos (2.93 lbs)
- Hoffmanns’s titi with a weight of 1.07 kilos (2.36 lbs)
- Potto with a weight of 1.08 kilos (2.38 lbs)
- Indian giant squirrel with a weight of 1.06 kilos (2.34 lbs)
- Back-striped weasel with a weight of 1.5 kilos (3.31 lbs)
- Monjon with a weight of 1.26 kilos (2.78 lbs)
- Common opossum with a weight of 1.14 kilos (2.51 lbs)
- Eastern cottontail with a weight of 1.21 kilos (2.67 lbs)
- Herbert River ringtail possum with a weight of 1.1 kilos (2.43 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Hispaniolan hutia
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Hispaniolan hutia:
- Western barred bandicoot with a size of 30 cm (1′ 0″)
- Black and red bush squirrel with a size of 24.3 cm (0′ 10″)
- Columbian ground squirrel with a size of 29.6 cm (1′ 0″)
- Angolan kusimanse with a size of 32.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Oncilla with a size of 25 cm (0′ 10″)
- Black-bearded flying fox with a size of 28.5 cm (1′ 0″)
- Gray-bellied night monkey with a size of 30.5 cm (1′ 1″)
- Giant white-tailed rat with a size of 28.3 cm (1′ 0″)
- Eastern gray squirrel with a size of 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Golden lion tamarin with a size of 26.1 cm (0′ 11″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Hispaniolan hutia
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Hispaniolan hutia:
- Forest giant squirrel
- Woosnam’s brush-furred rat
- Collared mangabey
- Nyala
- Cantor’s roundleaf bat
- Northern greater galago
- Gray-backed sportive lemur
- Reeves’s muntjac
- Long-nosed potoroo
- Azara’s night monkey
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Hispaniolan hutia
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Hispaniolan hutia:
- Boodie with an average maximal age of 10 years
- Blanford’s fox with an average maximal age of 10 years
- African wild dog with an average maximal age of 11 years
- Southern tamandua with an average maximal age of 9 years
- Oncilla with an average maximal age of 10 years
- Javan mongoose with an average maximal age of 10 years
- Common dwarf mongoose with an average maximal age of 10.92 years
- Geoffroy’s tailless bat with an average maximal age of 10 years
- Edible dormouse with an average maximal age of 9 years
- Western tree hyrax with an average maximal age of 10 years