It is hard to guess what a Southern red-backed vole weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Southern red-backed vole (Clethrionomys gapperi) on average weights 19 grams (0.04 lbs).
The Southern red-backed vole is from the family Muridae (genus: Clethrionomys). It is usually born with about 1 grams (0 lbs). They can live for up to 1.67 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 10.1 cm (0′ 4″). On average, Southern red-backed voles can have babies 2 times per year with a litter size of 5.
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 southern red-backed vole or Gapper’s red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi) is a small slender vole found in Canada and the northern United States. It is closely related to the western red-backed vole (Myodes californius), which lives to the south and west of its range and which is less red with a less sharply bicolored tail.These voles have short slender bodies with a reddish band along the back and a short tail. The sides of the body and head are grey and the underparts are paler. There is a grey color morph in the northeast part of their range. They are 12–16.5 cm (4.7–6.5 in) long with a 4 cm tail and weigh about 6–42 g; average 20.6 g (0.21–1.48 oz; average 0.72 oz).These animals are found in coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests, often near wetlands. They use runways through the surface growth in warm weather and tunnel through the snow in winter. They are omnivorous feeding on green plants, underground fungi, seeds, nuts, roots, also insects, snails, and berries. They store roots, bulbs, and nuts for later use.Predators include hawks, owls, and mustelids.Female voles have two to four litters of two to eight young in a year.They are active year-round, mostly at night. They use burrows created by other small animals.
Animals of the same family as a Southern red-backed vole
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Isarog shrew-rat with a weight of 122 grams
- Short-footed Luzon tree rat with a size of 20 cm (0′ 8″)
- Zygodontomys brunneus with a weight of 75 grams
- Barbary striped grass mouse with a weight of 26 grams
- Gray-tailed narrow-headed rat with a weight of 85 grams
- Nikolaus’s mouse with a weight of 52 grams
- Mountain spiny rat with a weight of 159 grams
- Brush-tailed rabbit rat with a weight of 175 grams
- Blyth’s vole with 1 babies per litter
- Steppe field mouse with a weight of 20 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Southern red-backed vole
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Clethrionomys gapperi:
- Waterhouse’s leaf-nosed bat bringing 16 grams to the scale
- Juliana’s golden mole bringing 21 grams to the scale
- Small-toothed harvest mouse bringing 20 grams to the scale
- Velvety fruit-eating bat bringing 16 grams to the scale
- Blackish white-toothed shrew bringing 20 grams to the scale
- Therese’s shrew bringing 17 grams to the scale
- Juliana’s golden mole bringing 22 grams to the scale
- Handley’s tailless bat bringing 17 grams to the scale
- Père David’s vole bringing 19 grams to the scale
- Western red-backed vole bringing 18 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Southern red-backed vole
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Southern red-backed vole:
- Ethiopian epauletted fruit bat with a size of 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- White-tipped Oldfield mouse with a size of 11.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Red tree vole with a size of 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mole-like rice tenrec with a size of 10.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Handley’s slender opossum with a size of 11.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Sclater’s golden mole with a size of 10 cm (0′ 4″)
- Western shrew mouse with a size of 10.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Spectral tarsier with a size of 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Cape serotine with a size of 8.2 cm (0′ 4″)
- Woodland thicket rat with a size of 11 cm (0′ 5″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Southern red-backed vole
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (5) as a Southern red-backed vole:
- Corsac fox
- Dark bolo mouse
- Merriam’s shrew
- Common degu
- Social vole
- Mongolian gerbil
- Northern short-tailed shrew
- Grey red-backed vole
- Kellen’s dormouse
- Yellow-necked mouse
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Southern red-backed vole
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Southern red-backed vole:
- Panamanian spiny pocket mouse with an average maximal age of 1.75 years
- Honey possum with an average maximal age of 2 years
- American water shrew with an average maximal age of 1.5 years
- Texas mouse with an average maximal age of 1.5 years
- Cinnamon antechinus with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Western harvest mouse with an average maximal age of 1.5 years
- Trowbridge’s shrew with an average maximal age of 1.5 years
- North American least shrew with an average maximal age of 1.75 years
- Eurasian pygmy shrew with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Long-clawed shrew with an average maximal age of 1.5 years