It is hard to guess what a Southern red-backed vole weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Southern red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi) on average weights 19 grams (0.04 lbs).
The Southern red-backed vole is from the family Cricetidae (genus: Myodes). 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 Cricetidae family:
- Brucepattersonius iheringi with a weight of 43 grams
- Allegheny woodrat with a weight of 447 grams
- Middendorf’s vole with 5 babies per litter
- Altiplano grass mouse with a weight of 20 grams
- Hylaeamys laticeps with a weight of 49 grams
- Montane grass mouse with a size of 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Abrothrix longipilis with a weight of 38 grams
- Abrothrix andinus with a weight of 24 grams
- Bank vole with a weight of 20 grams
- Blackish grass mouse with a weight of 19 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 Myodes gapperi:
- Abrothrix andinus bringing 18 grams to the scale
- Japanese shrew mole bringing 18 grams to the scale
- Long-tongued nectar bat bringing 16 grams to the scale
- Lesser Asiatic yellow bat bringing 20 grams to the scale
- Steppe field mouse bringing 20 grams to the scale
- Brown tent-making bat bringing 17 grams to the scale
- Davis’s round-eared bat bringing 20 grams to the scale
- Fischer’s pygmy fruit bat bringing 18 grams to the scale
- Blackish grass mouse bringing 19 grams to the scale
- Wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bat bringing 21 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:
- Meadow vole with a size of 11.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Lesser Egyptian jerboa with a size of 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- California kangaroo rat with a size of 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Gray-bellied pencil-tailed tree mouse with a size of 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Small Luzon forest mouse with a size of 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Desert mouse with a size of 8.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Junin slender opossum with a size of 11.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Dian’s tarsier with a size of 11.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Greenish naked-backed fruit bat with a size of 8.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Broad-striped tube-nosed fruit bat with a size of 12.1 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:
- Siberian large-toothed shrew
- Eversmann’s hamster
- Slender shrew
- Gray marmot
- Sandhill dunnart
- Townsend’s vole
- House mouse
- Uinta ground squirrel
- Grey red-backed vole
- Grey dwarf hamster
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:
- Cinereus shrew with an average maximal age of 1.92 years
- Ornate shrew with an average maximal age of 1.42 years
- Ningbing false antechinus with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Townsend’s mole with an average maximal age of 1.5 years
- Panamanian spiny pocket mouse with an average maximal age of 1.75 years
- Long-clawed shrew with an average maximal age of 1.5 years
- Arctic shrew with an average maximal age of 1.5 years
- Honey possum with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Robinson’s mouse opossum with an average maximal age of 2 years
- Grant’s golden mole with an average maximal age of 2 years