It is hard to guess what a Japanese squirrel weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Japanese squirrel (Sciurus lis) on average weights 264 grams (0.58 lbs).
The Japanese squirrel is from the family Sciuridae (genus: Sciurus). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 29.4 cm (1′ 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 Japanese squirrel (Sciurus lis) is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus endemic to Japan. It was described by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1844. The Japanese squirrel’s range includes the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū. Recently, populations on south-western Honshū and Shikoku decreased, and those on Kyūshū disappeared. One of the factors affecting the local extinction of this species seems to be forest fragmentation by humans.
Animals of the same family as a Japanese squirrel
We found other animals of the Sciuridae family:
- Alpine chipmunk with a weight of 36 grams
- California ground squirrel with a weight of 598 grams
- Gray marmot with 5 babies per litter
- Red-cheeked ground squirrel with 7 babies per litter
- Northern Idaho ground squirrel with a weight of 300 grams
- Brazilian squirrel with a weight of 177 grams
- Mexican gray squirrel with a weight of 456 grams
- Ear-spot squirrel with a weight of 209 grams
- Wyoming ground squirrel with a weight of 325 grams
- Southern flying squirrel with a weight of 72 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Japanese squirrel
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Sciurus lis:
- Thomas’s rope squirrel bringing 224 grams to the scale
- Carruther’s mountain squirrel bringing 277 grams to the scale
- Golden-backed tree-rat bringing 294 grams to the scale
- Goeldi’s spiny rat bringing 284 grams to the scale
- Mechow’s mole-rat bringing 272 grams to the scale
- Round-tailed muskrat bringing 265 grams to the scale
- Robust tuco-tuco bringing 249 grams to the scale
- Eastern rat bringing 230 grams to the scale
- Luzon broad-toothed rat bringing 268 grams to the scale
- Colombian spiny rat bringing 312 grams to the scale