It is hard to guess what a Vancouver Island marmot weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) on average weights 5.24 kg (11.54 lbs).
The Vancouver Island marmot is from the family Sciuridae (genus: Marmota). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 46.7 cm (1′ 7″). Usually, Vancouver Island marmots have 3 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 Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) naturally occurs only in the high mountains of Vancouver Island, in the British Columbia. This particular marmot species is large compared to some other marmots, and most other rodents. Marmots as a group are the largest members of the squirrel family, with weights of adults varying from 3 to 7 kg depending on age and time of year.Although endemic to Vancouver Island, Marmota vancouverensis now also resides successfully at several captive breeding centres across Canada as well as several sites on Vancouver Island at which local extinction was observed during the 1990s. This is the result of an ongoing recovery program designed to prevent extinction and restore self-sustaining wild populations of this unique Canadian species. Due to the efforts of the recovery program, the marmot count in the wild increased from less than 30 wild marmots in 2003, to an estimated 250-300 in 2015.
Animals of the same family as a Vancouver Island marmot
We found other animals of the Sciuridae family:
- Culion tree squirrel with a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Buller’s chipmunk with a weight of 100 grams
- Merriam’s chipmunk with a weight of 74 grams
- Tropical ground squirrel with a weight of 155 grams
- Red-tailed chipmunk with a weight of 60 grams
- Andean squirrel with a weight of 803 grams
- Least pygmy squirrel with a weight of 21 grams
- Bobak marmot with 6 babies per litter
- Arrow flying squirrel with a weight of 49 grams
- Red and white giant flying squirrel bringing 1.5 kilos (3.31 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a Vancouver Island marmot
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Marmota vancouverensis:
- Red-necked pademelon with a weight of 5.4 kilos (11.9 lbs)
- Arctic hare with a weight of 4.42 kilos (9.74 lbs)
- Müeller’s gibbon with a weight of 5.92 kilos (13.05 lbs)
- Big hairy armadillo with a weight of 4.46 kilos (9.83 lbs)
- Günther’s dik-dik with a weight of 4.61 kilos (10.16 lbs)
- Suni with a weight of 5.63 kilos (12.41 lbs)
- Bridled nail-tail wallaby with a weight of 4.95 kilos (10.91 lbs)
- Bicolored-spined porcupine with a weight of 4.49 kilos (9.9 lbs)
- Tibetan sand fox with a weight of 5.54 kilos (12.21 lbs)
- Hairy-nosed otter with a weight of 5.97 kilos (13.16 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Vancouver Island marmot
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Vancouver Island marmot:
- Black howler with a size of 55.9 cm (1′ 11″)
- Amami rabbit with a size of 44.4 cm (1′ 6″)
- Brown howler with a size of 51.4 cm (1′ 9″)
- Coypu with a size of 52.1 cm (1′ 9″)
- Burmese ferret-badger with a size of 39.9 cm (1′ 4″)
- Bay cat with a size of 55 cm (1′ 10″)
- Tufted capuchin with a size of 42.8 cm (1′ 5″)
- Yellow-tailed woolly monkey with a size of 55.1 cm (1′ 10″)
- L’Hoest’s monkey with a size of 51 cm (1′ 9″)
- Telefomin cuscus with a size of 39.9 cm (1′ 4″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Vancouver Island marmot
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (3) as a Vancouver Island marmot: