It is hard to guess what a Pygmy ringtail possum weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Pygmy ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus mayeri) on average weights 152 grams (0.34 lbs).
The Pygmy ringtail possum is from the family Pseudocheiridae (genus: Pseudocheirus). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 19.9 cm (0′ 8″). Usually, Pygmy ringtail possums have 1 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 pygmy ringtail possum (Pseudochirulus mayeri) is a species of marsupial in the family Pseudocheiridae. It is found in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea in montane forest regions. They are “widespread along the Central Cordillera” and live at elevations between 1,500 and 3,600 metres (4,900 and 11,800 ft) above sea level.”Pygmy ringtails are herbivores or “arboreal folivores” that eat pollen, lichen, fungus and “epiphytic moss.” P. mayeri also eat the bark of trees, which provides them with calcium and potassium. They have “large incisor” teeth which help with “clipping forage from plants” and have “selenodont molars” that help with “shredding ingested foliage.” They have “an enlarged cecum that acts as a fermentation chamber” and allows “gut bacteria to breakdown [sic] plant tissue.” The extra retention time allows the pygmy ringtail to obtain more nutrients from the ingested forage.
Animals of the same family as a Pygmy ringtail possum
We found other animals of the Pseudocheiridae family:
- Lowland ringtail possum with a weight of 300 grams
- Plush-coated ringtail possum bringing 1.12 kilos (2.47 lbs) to the scale
- Herbert River ringtail possum bringing 1.1 kilos (2.43 lbs) to the scale
- Vogelkop ringtail possum with a weight of 255 grams
- Greater glider bringing 1.26 kilos (2.78 lbs) to the scale
- Pygmy ringtail possum with a weight of 151 grams
- Painted ringtail possum with a weight of 639 grams
- Coppery ringtail possum bringing 1.77 kilos (3.9 lbs) to the scale
- Lowland ringtail possum with a weight of 300 grams
- Lemur-like ringtail possum with a weight of 997 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Pygmy ringtail possum
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Pseudocheirus mayeri:
- Lesser hedgehog tenrec bringing 160 grams to the scale
- Sula rat bringing 131 grams to the scale
- Golden-mantled ground squirrel bringing 175 grams to the scale
- White-eared cotton rat bringing 132 grams to the scale
- Striped treeshrew bringing 168 grams to the scale
- Sooretamys bringing 144 grams to the scale
- Soft-spined Atlantic spiny rat bringing 168 grams to the scale
- Mountain degu bringing 154 grams to the scale
- Siberian flying squirrel bringing 143 grams to the scale
- Mountain treeshrew bringing 168 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Pygmy ringtail possum
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Pygmy ringtail possum:
- Lesser Angolan epauletted fruit bat with a size of 16.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- White-bellied Luzon tree rat with a size of 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Maxomys baeodon with a size of 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Mentawai three-striped squirrel with a size of 18.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Greater stick-nest rat with a size of 19.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Green bush squirrel with a size of 19.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Plains pocket gopher with a size of 16.8 cm (0′ 7″)
- Desert hedgehog with a size of 18.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Val’s gundi with a size of 17.6 cm (0′ 7″)
- Carruther’s mountain squirrel with a size of 22.9 cm (0′ 10″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Pygmy ringtail possum
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Pygmy ringtail possum: