It is hard to guess what a Ontong Java flying fox weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Ontong Java flying fox (Pteropus howensis) on average weights 232 grams (0.51 lbs).
The Ontong Java flying fox is from the family Pteropodidae (genus: Pteropus). It is usually born with about 35 grams (0.08 lbs). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 18.4 cm (0′ 8″).
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 Ontong Java flying fox (Pteropus howensis) is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is endemic to the Ontong Java Atoll in the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical swamps. It was classified as “Data Deficient” in 2008 by the IUCN over concerns of taxonomic validity. However its confirmed range extends only over small islands, all of which are near to sea level. It is therefore threatened by rising sea levels.
Animals of the same family as a Ontong Java flying fox
We found other animals of the Pteropodidae family:
- Ceram fruit bat with a weight of 228 grams
- Black-bellied fruit bat with a weight of 47 grams
- Black-eared flying fox with 1 babies per litter
- Bare-backed rousette with a weight of 92 grams
- Minor epauletted fruit bat with a weight of 44 grams
- Big-eared flying fox with a weight of 365 grams
- Bougainville monkey-faced bat with a weight of 573 grams
- Ryukyu flying fox with a weight of 491 grams
- Montane monkey-faced bat with a weight of 290 grams
- Swift fruit bat with a weight of 66 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Ontong Java flying fox
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Pteropus howensis:
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher bringing 266 grams to the scale
- Brandt’s hedgehog bringing 213 grams to the scale
- Pteropus brunneus bringing 200 grams to the scale
- Ashy chinchilla rat bringing 194 grams to the scale
- Large New Guinea spiny rat bringing 194 grams to the scale
- Drab Atlantic tree-rat bringing 260 grams to the scale
- Mottled tuco-tuco bringing 192 grams to the scale
- Western naked-backed fruit bat bringing 226 grams to the scale
- Luzon broad-toothed rat bringing 268 grams to the scale
- Tawny-bellied cotton rat bringing 196 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Ontong Java flying fox
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Ontong Java flying fox:
- Russian desman with a size of 20.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Lowland streaked tenrec with a size of 17.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Greater fairy armadillo with a size of 15.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Steinbach’s tuco-tuco with a size of 19.6 cm (0′ 8″)
- Grey-bellied squirrel with a size of 21.1 cm (0′ 9″)
- Knox Jones’s pocket gopher with a size of 15.4 cm (0′ 7″)
- Nectomys squamipes with a size of 18.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Mountain treeshrew with a size of 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Siberian chipmunk with a size of 14.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Maxomys baeodon with a size of 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)