It is hard to guess what a Richardson’s ground squirrel weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Richardson’s ground squirrel (Spermophilus richardsonii) on average weights 325 grams (0.72 lbs).
The Richardson’s ground squirrel is from the family Sciuridae (genus: Spermophilus). It is usually born with about 6 grams (0.01 lbs). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 21.1 cm (0′ 9″). On average, Richardson’s ground squirrels can have babies 1 times per year with a litter size of 7.
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.
Richardson’s ground squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii), also known as the dakrat or flickertail, is a North American ground squirrel in the genus Urocitellus. Like a number of other ground squirrels, they are sometimes called prairie dogs or gophers, though the latter name belongs more strictly to the pocket gophers of family Geomyidae, and the former to members of the genus Cynomys.
Animals of the same family as a Richardson’s ground squirrel
We found other animals of the Sciuridae family:
- Hoary marmot bringing 2.25 kilos (4.96 lbs) to the scale
- Colorado chipmunk with a weight of 57 grams
- Gambian sun squirrel with a weight of 248 grams
- Daurian ground squirrel with 5 babies per litter
- Indian giant squirrel bringing 1.06 kilos (2.34 lbs) to the scale
- Siberian flying squirrel with a weight of 143 grams
- Guayaquil squirrel with a weight of 433 grams
- Yellow ground squirrel with a weight of 779 grams
- Pallas’s squirrel with a weight of 283 grams
- Long-clawed ground squirrel with a size of 24.4 cm (0′ 10″)
Animals with the same weight as a Richardson’s ground squirrel
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Spermophilus richardsonii:
- Stoat bringing 284 grams to the scale
- Red-tailed squirrel bringing 319 grams to the scale
- Sulawesi flying fox bringing 383 grams to the scale
- Orange-brown Atlantic tree-rat bringing 312 grams to the scale
- Madagascan fruit bat bringing 296 grams to the scale
- Müller’s giant Sunda rat bringing 356 grams to the scale
- Big-eared flying fox bringing 365 grams to the scale
- Desert hedgehog bringing 352 grams to the scale
- Greater hedgehog tenrec bringing 277 grams to the scale
- Southern mountain cavy bringing 261 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Richardson’s ground squirrel
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Richardson’s ground squirrel:
- Grey-bellied squirrel with a size of 21.1 cm (0′ 9″)
- American pika with a size of 19 cm (0′ 8″)
- Striped bush squirrel with a size of 17.8 cm (0′ 8″)
- San Martín Island woodrat with a size of 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Haig’s tuco-tuco with a size of 17.3 cm (0′ 7″)
- Dusky-footed woodrat with a size of 20.8 cm (0′ 9″)
- Mindanao hairy-tailed rat with a size of 17.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Long-tailed giant rat with a size of 22.8 cm (0′ 9″)
- Daurian hedgehog with a size of 21.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Gambian sun squirrel with a size of 19.6 cm (0′ 8″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Richardson’s ground squirrel
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (7) as a Richardson’s ground squirrel: