It is hard to guess what a Merriam’s pocket mouse weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Merriam’s pocket mouse (Perognathus merriami) on average weights 6 grams (0.01 lbs).
The Merriam’s pocket mouse is from the family Heteromyidae (genus: Perognathus). They can live for up to 2.5 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 5.8 cm (0′ 3″). Usually, Merriam’s pocket mouses have 4 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.
Merriam’s pocket mouse (Perognathus merriami) is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It is found in northeast Mexico and New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas in the United States. Its habitat is shortgrass prairie, desert areas with scrub and arid shrubland. The species is named to honor Clinton Hart Merriam, a biologist who first described several other members of the genus Perognathus, and first elucidated the principle of a “life zone” as a means of characterizing ecological areas with similar plant and animal communities.
Animals of the same family as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
We found other animals of the Heteromyidae family:
- Arizona pocket mouse with a weight of 11 grams
- Bailey’s pocket mouse with a weight of 27 grams
- Great Basin pocket mouse with a weight of 21 grams
- Phillips’s kangaroo rat with a weight of 41 grams
- Lined pocket mouse with a weight of 23 grams
- Chisel-toothed kangaroo rat with a weight of 56 grams
- Desert pocket mouse with a weight of 15 grams
- Nelson’s spiny pocket mouse with a weight of 67 grams
- Goldman’s spiny pocket mouse with a weight of 85 grams
- California kangaroo rat with a weight of 85 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Perognathus merriami:
- Egyptian pygmy shrew bringing 7 grams to the scale
- Setzer’s pygmy mouse bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Abo bat bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Brandt’s bat bringing 5 grams to the scale
- Hairy slit-faced bat bringing 7 grams to the scale
- Long-tailed planigale bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Wagner’s mustached bat bringing 7 grams to the scale
- Little big-eared bat bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Kuhl’s pipistrelle bringing 6 grams to the scale
- Zacatecas shrew bringing 7 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Merriam’s pocket mouse:
- Little yellow-shouldered bat with a size of 6.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Hodgson’s brown-toothed shrew with a size of 6.4 cm (0′ 3″)
- Red fruit bat with a size of 6.1 cm (0′ 3″)
- Indiana bat with a size of 4.7 cm (0′ 2″)
- Asiatic short-tailed shrew with a size of 6.7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Lesser ranee mouse with a size of 6.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Vagrant shrew with a size of 6.4 cm (0′ 3″)
- Mexican small-eared shrew with a size of 6.1 cm (0′ 3″)
- Tundra shrew with a size of 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Slender shrew with a size of 5.3 cm (0′ 3″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Merriam’s pocket mouse:
- North African gerbil
- Common vole
- Brown four-eyed opossum
- Culpeo
- Eastern cottontail
- Black-tailed gerbil
- Tropical pocket gopher
- Dice’s cottontail
- Japanese dormouse
- Andean vesper mouse
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Merriam’s pocket mouse:
- Norway lemming with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Grant’s golden mole with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Merriam’s kangaroo rat with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Brown antechinus with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Narrow-nosed planigale with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Highland streaked tenrec with an average maximal age of 2.58 years
- Etruscan shrew with an average maximal age of 2.67 years
- Hoary bat with an average maximal age of 2.08 years
- Dusky antechinus with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Asian house shrew with an average maximal age of 2.5 years