It is hard to guess what a Malagasy giant rat weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Malagasy giant rat (Hypogeomys antimena) on average weights 1.18 kg (2.6 lbs).
The Malagasy giant rat is from the family Muridae (genus: Hypogeomys). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 30.6 cm (1′ 1″). Usually, Malagasy giant rats 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 Malagasy giant rat (Hypogeomys antimena), also known as the votsotsa or votsovotsa, is a nesomyid rodent found only in the Menabe region of Madagascar. It is an endangered species due to habitat loss, slow reproduction, and limited range (200 square kilometres north of Morondava, between the rivers Tomitsy and Tsiribihina) Pairs are monogamous and females bear only one or two young per year. It is the only extant species in the genus Hypogeomys; another species, Hypogeomys australis, is known from subfossil remains a few thousand years old.
Animals of the same family as a Malagasy giant rat
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Roraima mouse with a weight of 33 grams
- Isarog shrew-rat with a weight of 122 grams
- Southern African spiny mouse with a weight of 26 grams
- Strong-tailed Oldfield mouse with a weight of 77 grams
- Steppe mouse with a size of 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Watson’s climbing rat with 2 babies per litter
- Taiwan vole with a weight of 46 grams
- Sikkim rat with a size of 18.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Littledale’s whistling rat with a weight of 126 grams
- Bunchgrass leaf-eared mouse with a weight of 43 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Malagasy giant rat
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Hypogeomys antimena:
- Red acouchi with a weight of 1.25 kilos (2.76 lbs)
- Ring-tailed cat with a weight of 1.02 kilos (2.25 lbs)
- Hershkovitz’s titi bringing 992 grams to the scale
- Common kusimanse with a weight of 1.39 kilos (3.06 lbs)
- Ollala brothers’s titi bringing 992 grams to the scale
- Mimic tree rat bringing 975 grams to the scale
- Abyssinian genet with a weight of 1.41 kilos (3.11 lbs)
- Big-eared opossum with a weight of 1.11 kilos (2.45 lbs)
- Eastern lowland olingo with a weight of 1.24 kilos (2.73 lbs)
- Poncelet’s giant rat with a weight of 1 kilos (2.2 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Malagasy giant rat
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Malagasy giant rat:
- Eastern white-eared giant rat with a size of 33.9 cm (1′ 2″)
- Arizona gray squirrel with a size of 26.4 cm (0′ 11″)
- Lord Derby’s scaly-tailed squirrel with a size of 35.7 cm (1′ 3″)
- Muskrat with a size of 27.7 cm (0′ 11″)
- Oncilla with a size of 25 cm (0′ 10″)
- Solomons flying fox with a size of 25.6 cm (0′ 11″)
- Bare-eared squirrel monkey with a size of 30.9 cm (1′ 1″)
- Javan mongoose with a size of 27.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Poncelet’s giant rat with a size of 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Hooded skunk with a size of 30.8 cm (1′ 1″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Malagasy giant rat
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Malagasy giant rat: