It is hard to guess what a Mountain paca weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii) on average weights 9 kg (19.84 lbs).
The Mountain paca is from the family Cuniculidae (genus: Cuniculus). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 64.7 cm (2′ 2″). On average, Mountain pacas can have babies 2 times per year with a litter size of 1.
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 mountain paca (Cuniculus taczanowskii) is a small burrow-dwelling rodent whose habitats are high altitude South American forests. Pacas are nocturnal, sedentary, and solitary animals with territorial tendencies. It eats mostly fruits and seeds. The mountain paca primarily inhabits higher Andean montane forest regions in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.This paca has coarse fur without underfur, dark brown to black on the upper body and white or yellowish on the underbelly. It usually has three to five rows of white spots along its sides, against a dark grey background. It has thick strong legs, with four digits in the forefeet and five in the hind feet (the first and fifth are reduced); the nails function as hooves. The tail is short and hairless. The zygomatic arch is expanded laterally and dorsally and is used as a resonating chamber – a unique feature among mammals.The mountain paca is hunted for its meat, which is high in calories and is considered a delicacy particularly in rural communities. Due to its quick growth, it may be bred in captivity for commercial use. However, it has a low reproductive capacity and its numbers have been significantly reduced in recent years due to hunting and habitat destruction. It is fairly abundant in protected areas.
Animals of the same family as a Mountain paca
We found other animals of the Cuniculidae family:
- Lowland paca bringing 8.17 kilos (18.01 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a Mountain paca
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Cuniculus taczanowskii:
- Purple-faced langur with a weight of 7.53 kilos (16.6 lbs)
- Canada lynx with a weight of 9.73 kilos (21.45 lbs)
- Patagonian mara with a weight of 8.03 kilos (17.7 lbs)
- Western red colobus with a weight of 8.43 kilos (18.58 lbs)
- Lowlands tree-kangaroo with a weight of 8.47 kilos (18.67 lbs)
- Yellow-tailed woolly monkey with a weight of 8.23 kilos (18.14 lbs)
- Tibetan macaque with a weight of 10.6 kilos (23.37 lbs)
- Matschie’s tree-kangaroo with a weight of 8.31 kilos (18.32 lbs)
- Assam macaque with a weight of 8.55 kilos (18.85 lbs)
- Tonkin snub-nosed monkey with a weight of 9.09 kilos (20.04 lbs)
Animals with the same litter size as a Mountain paca
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Mountain paca: