It is hard to guess what a Lesser mole-rat weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Lesser mole-rat (Nannospalax leucodon) on average weights 189 grams (0.42 lbs).
The Lesser mole-rat is from the family Muridae (genus: Nannospalax). It is usually born with about 5 grams (0.01 lbs). They can live for up to 4.5 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 50 cm (1′ 8″). On average, Lesser mole-rats can have babies 1 times per year with a litter size of 3.
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 lesser mole-rat (Spalax leucodon) is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae found in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, Turkey, Iran and Ukraine. There have been suggestions that its taxonomic position should change in the light of new scientific information. Modern authors tend to separate this and some closely related mole rat species from other Spalax species by classifying them into a separate genus named Nannospalax. A cariological study showed that Nannospalax leucodon is a superspecies consisting of several cariologically distinct cryptic species. According to this definition there are four separate cariological forms in the Carpathian Basin, one of them endangered and another one vulnerable while insufficient data are available to evaluate the conservation status of the other two forms.
Animals of the same family as a Lesser mole-rat
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Andean gerbil mouse with a weight of 28 grams
- Ryukyu mouse with a weight of 14 grams
- Large pencil-tailed tree mouse with a weight of 28 grams
- Major’s tufted-tailed rat with a weight of 100 grams
- Sulawesi giant rat with a weight of 325 grams
- Unalaska collared lemming with 2 babies per litter
- Wetzel’s climbing mouse with a weight of 89 grams
- Ladew’s Oldfield mouse with a weight of 77 grams
- Target rat with a weight of 70 grams
- Lesser tree mouse with a weight of 45 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Lesser mole-rat
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Nannospalax leucodon:
- Turkish hamster bringing 198 grams to the scale
- Mendoza tuco-tuco bringing 179 grams to the scale
- Mira climbing rat bringing 184 grams to the scale
- Mohol bushbaby bringing 193 grams to the scale
- Fossorial giant rat bringing 168 grams to the scale
- Short-furred dasyure bringing 161 grams to the scale
- Thirteen-lined ground squirrel bringing 175 grams to the scale
- Plateau pika bringing 160 grams to the scale
- San Joaquin antelope squirrel bringing 160 grams to the scale
- Brush-tailed rabbit rat bringing 175 grams to the scale
Animals with the same litter size as a Lesser mole-rat
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (3) as a Lesser mole-rat:
- Allen’s wood mouse
- Sumichrast’s harvest mouse
- Southern mole vole
- Lesser dwarf shrew
- Masked white-tailed rat
- Little native mouse
- Kashmir flying squirrel
- Brush mouse
- Coast mole
- Brants’s climbing mouse
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Lesser mole-rat
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Lesser mole-rat:
- Mountain pocket gopher with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Uinta ground squirrel with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Botta’s pocket gopher with an average maximal age of 4.5 years
- Great gerbil with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Günther’s vole with an average maximal age of 3.83 years
- Greater cane rat with an average maximal age of 4.25 years
- Paucident planigale with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Lemur-like ringtail possum with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Northern birch mouse with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Black-footed tree-rat with an average maximal age of 3.83 years