It is hard to guess what a White-footed rabbit-rat weights. But we have the answer:
An adult White-footed rabbit-rat (Conilurus albipes) on average weights 200 grams (0.44 lbs).
The White-footed rabbit-rat is from the family Muridae (genus: Conilurus). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 25 cm (0′ 10″).
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 white-footed rabbit-rat (Conilurus albipes) is an extinct species of rodent, which was originally found in woodlands from Adelaide to Sydney, but became restricted to south-eastern Australia. It was kitten-sized and was one of Australia’s largest native rodents. It was nocturnal and lived among trees. It made nests filled with leaves and possibly grass in the limbs of hollow eucalyptus trees. The mother carried her young attached to her teats. In a letter to John Gould, then Governor of South Australia Sir George Grey said that he removed a baby from a teat of its dead mother. The baby clung tightly to Gould’s glove.Sydney natives called it ‘gnar-ruck’ which translates as ‘rabbit-biscuit’. It was a problem in the settlers’ stores at about 1788. The last specimen was recorded at about 1845, but some were reported in 1856–57 and perhaps in the 1930s. Rats may have spread diseases or competed for food with the white-footed rabbit rat. Cats may have been predators, while the demise of Aboriginal firestick farming, which maintained woodland, may have made the rabbit rat extinct.Joyce and McCann, in Burke & Wills – The Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition (CSIRO Publishing, 2012) state (p138 et seq) that the animal was seen by Beckler at camp 53 in April 1861, in the vicinity of the Bulloo River system. Additionally, the authors state that the relief party of 1862, which included Howitt, collected a specimen south of Coopers Creek.
Animals of the same family as a White-footed rabbit-rat
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Akodon albiventer with a weight of 26 grams
- Insular vole with a weight of 66 grams
- Oligoryzomys magellanicus with a weight of 25 grams
- Bunchgrass leaf-eared mouse with a weight of 43 grams
- Mongolian gerbil with a weight of 57 grams
- Obi mosaic-tailed rat with a weight of 71 grams
- Pearson’s chaco mouse with a weight of 25 grams
- Hylaeamys megacephalus with a weight of 57 grams
- Cape spiny mouse with a weight of 21 grams
- Oecomys phaeotis with a weight of 73 grams
Animals with the same weight as a White-footed rabbit-rat
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Conilurus albipes:
- Richmond’s squirrel bringing 237 grams to the scale
- Pallid Atlantic tree-rat bringing 215 grams to the scale
- Douglas squirrel bringing 225 grams to the scale
- Black-striped squirrel bringing 209 grams to the scale
- Pearson’s tuco-tuco bringing 212 grams to the scale
- Four-toed elephant shrew bringing 201 grams to the scale
- Indian hedgehog bringing 171 grams to the scale
- Western naked-backed fruit bat bringing 226 grams to the scale
- Washington ground squirrel bringing 215 grams to the scale
- Sonoran woodrat bringing 227 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a White-footed rabbit-rat
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as White-footed rabbit-rat:
- Chinese red pika with a size of 24.5 cm (0′ 10″)
- Highland tuco-tuco with a size of 21.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Common dwarf mongoose with a size of 20.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Derby’s woolly opossum with a size of 23.1 cm (0′ 10″)
- Ili pika with a size of 20.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Long-tailed giant rat with a size of 22.8 cm (0′ 9″)
- Hagen’s flying squirrel with a size of 24.8 cm (0′ 10″)
- Guyenne spiny rat with a size of 22 cm (0′ 9″)
- Pallas’s squirrel with a size of 21.1 cm (0′ 9″)
- Smoky flying squirrel with a size of 22.9 cm (0′ 10″)