It is hard to guess what a Plains pocket gopher weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) on average weights 179 grams (0.39 lbs).
The Plains pocket gopher is from the family Geomyidae (genus: Geomys). It is usually born with about 5 grams (0.01 lbs). They can live for up to 7.17 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 16.8 cm (0′ 7″). On average, Plains pocket gophers can have babies 1 times per year with a litter size of 3.
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 plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) is one of 35 species of pocket gophers, so named in reference to their externally located, fur-lined cheek pouches. They are burrowing animals, found in grasslands and agricultural land across the Great Plains of North America, from Manitoba to Texas. Pocket gophers are the most highly fossorial rodents found in North America.
Animals of the same family as a Plains pocket gopher
We found other animals of the Geomyidae family:
- Knox Jones’s pocket gopher with a weight of 172 grams
- Mountain pocket gopher with a weight of 81 grams
- Northern pocket gopher with a weight of 105 grams
- Underwood’s pocket gopher with a weight of 250 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher with a weight of 150 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher with a weight of 302 grams
- Texas pocket gopher with a weight of 397 grams
- Michoacan pocket gopher with a weight of 474 grams
- Tropical pocket gopher with a weight of 350 grams
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher with a weight of 266 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Plains pocket gopher
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Geomys bursarius:
- Northern treeshrew bringing 200 grams to the scale
- Long-tailed spiny rat bringing 205 grams to the scale
- Dusky rat bringing 146 grams to the scale
- Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat bringing 172 grams to the scale
- Brush-tailed rabbit rat bringing 175 grams to the scale
- Masked white-tailed rat bringing 149 grams to the scale
- Striped bush squirrel bringing 160 grams to the scale
- Tawny-bellied cotton rat bringing 196 grams to the scale
- Arizona woodrat bringing 200 grams to the scale
- Allen’s cotton rat bringing 174 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Plains pocket gopher
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Plains pocket gopher:
- Baird’s pocket gopher with a size of 15 cm (0′ 6″)
- Large treeshrew with a size of 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Collared pika with a size of 18.8 cm (0′ 8″)
- Dusky mosaic-tailed rat with a size of 15.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Gorongoza gerbil with a size of 16 cm (0′ 7″)
- Voalavoanala with a size of 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Gray-cheeked flying squirrel with a size of 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Sierra Madre ground squirrel with a size of 17.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- Tate’s woolly mouse opossum with a size of 16.8 cm (0′ 7″)
- Stephen’s woodrat with a size of 16.1 cm (0′ 7″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Plains pocket gopher
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (3) as a Plains pocket gopher:
- Kashmir flying squirrel
- Rusty-bellied brush-furred rat
- Greater hedgehog tenrec
- Aztec mouse
- Dwarf fat-tailed jerboa
- Oligoryzomys nigripes
- Alpine pika
- San Diego pocket mouse
- Large-eared tenrec
- Desert warthog
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Plains pocket gopher
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Plains pocket gopher:
- Yellow-bellied marmot with an average maximal age of 8 years
- Gray dorcopsis with an average maximal age of 8 years
- Southeastern myotis with an average maximal age of 6 years
- Florida mouse with an average maximal age of 7.33 years
- Kowari with an average maximal age of 7 years
- White-tailed rat with an average maximal age of 6 years
- Rakali with an average maximal age of 6.17 years
- Kowari with an average maximal age of 7 years
- Slender mongoose with an average maximal age of 6 years
- North African hedgehog with an average maximal age of 7 years