It is hard to guess what a Plateau pika weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) on average weights 160 grams (0.35 lbs).
The Plateau pika is from the family Ochotonidae (genus: Ochotona). It is usually born with about 11 grams (0.02 lbs). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 17 cm (0′ 7″). On average, Plateau pikas can have babies 3 times per year with a litter size of 4.
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 plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae), also known as the black-lipped pika, is a species of mammal in the pika family, Ochotonidae.It is a small diurnal and non-hibernating mammal weighing about 140 g when fully grown. The animals are reddish tan on the top-side with more of a whitish yellow on their under-belly.They prefer to live in elevations of 3,100 to 5,000 m, mostly in the Tibetan Plateau, which is where the common name originates from. The species is found in China, Pakistan, India, and Nepal in high alpine deserts, steppe and meadows, as well as tropical and subtropical montane forests.
Animals of the same family as a Plateau pika
We found other animals of the Ochotonidae family:
- Northern pika with a weight of 120 grams
- Royle’s pika with a weight of 260 grams
- Large-eared pika with a weight of 205 grams
- Turkestan red pika with a size of 20.8 cm (0′ 9″)
- Collared pika with a weight of 129 grams
- Alpine pika with a weight of 150 grams
- Ladak pika with a size of 17.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Pallas’s pika with a size of 8.2 cm (0′ 4″)
- Moupin pika with a weight of 35 grams
- Himalayan pika with a size of 16.5 cm (0′ 7″)
Animals with the same weight as a Plateau pika
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Ochotona curzoniae:
- Lunda rope squirrel bringing 135 grams to the scale
- Mira climbing rat bringing 184 grams to the scale
- Edible dormouse bringing 128 grams to the scale
- Short-furred dasyure bringing 161 grams to the scale
- Greater fairy armadillo bringing 130 grams to the scale
- Masked flying fox bringing 130 grams to the scale
- Egyptian fruit bat bringing 134 grams to the scale
- Earless water rat bringing 168 grams to the scale
- Large vlei rat bringing 192 grams to the scale
- Palawan treeshrew bringing 168 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Plateau pika
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Plateau pika:
- Sado mole with a size of 16.3 cm (0′ 7″)
- Pale field rat with a size of 15.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Indian hedgehog with a size of 18 cm (0′ 8″)
- Bridges’s degu with a size of 15.9 cm (0′ 7″)
- Robinson’s mouse opossum with a size of 15 cm (0′ 6″)
- Round-tailed muskrat with a size of 19.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Smoky pocket gopher with a size of 19.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Russian desman with a size of 20.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Large tree mouse with a size of 13.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Siberian chipmunk with a size of 14.8 cm (0′ 6″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Plateau pika
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (4) as a Plateau pika: