It is hard to guess what a Monito del monte weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) on average weights 25 grams (0.06 lbs).
The Monito del monte is from the family Microbiotheriidae (genus: Dromiciops). They can live for up to 3.17 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 10.5 cm (0′ 5″). Usually, Monito del montes have 3 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 monito del monte (Spanish for “little monkey of the mount”) or colocolo opossum, Dromiciops gliroides, also called chumaihuén in Mapudungun, is a diminutive marsupial native only to southwestern South America (Argentina and Chile). It is the only extant species in the ancient order Microbiotheria, and the sole New World representative of the superorder Australidelphia (all other New World marsupials are members of the paraphyletic “Ameridelphia”). The species is nocturnal and arboreal, and lives in thickets of South American mountain bamboo in the Valdivian temperate rain forests of the southern Andes, aided by its partially prehensile tail. It eats primarily insects and other small invertebrates, supplemented with fruit.
Animals with the same weight as a Monito del monte
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Dromiciops gliroides:
- Sinaloan mastiff bat bringing 22 grams to the scale
- Louise’s spiny mouse bringing 20 grams to the scale
- Gracile shrew tenrec bringing 23 grams to the scale
- Heart-nosed bat bringing 26 grams to the scale
- Woodland jumping mouse bringing 22 grams to the scale
- Friendly leaf-eared mouse bringing 20 grams to the scale
- Narrow-headed slender opossum bringing 26 grams to the scale
- Akodon albiventer bringing 26 grams to the scale
- Notiomys bringing 21 grams to the scale
- Tufted pygmy squirrel bringing 24 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Monito del monte
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Monito del monte:
- Aratathomas’s yellow-shouldered bat with a size of 8.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Common vole with a size of 11.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Northern red-backed vole with a size of 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Yellow-spotted brush-furred rat with a size of 12.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Selangor pygmy flying squirrel with a size of 8.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Pinheiro’s slender opossum with a size of 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Transcaucasian water shrew with a size of 8.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Cape golden mole with a size of 10.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum with a size of 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Neblina slender opossum with a size of 12.3 cm (0′ 5″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Monito del monte
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (3) as a Monito del monte:
- Dwarf fat-tailed jerboa
- Ochre mole-rat
- Palmer’s chipmunk
- Slender squirrel
- Four-toed hedgehog
- Long-nosed dasyure
- Panamanian spiny pocket mouse
- Brants’s climbing mouse
- Arctic lemming
- Cotton mouse
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Monito del monte
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Monito del monte:
- Brazilian spiny tree-rat with an average maximal age of 3.08 years
- Cape mole-rat with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Little red kaluta with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Pen-tailed treeshrew with an average maximal age of 2.67 years
- African wading rat with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Narrow-nosed planigale with an average maximal age of 3 years
- Smith’s vole with an average maximal age of 3.5 years
- Four-striped grass mouse with an average maximal age of 2.83 years
- Northern quoll with an average maximal age of 2.83 years
- Northern pygmy mouse with an average maximal age of 3.25 years