It is hard to guess what a White-tailed prairie dog weights. But we have the answer:
An adult White-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) on average weights 964 grams (2.13 lbs).
The White-tailed prairie dog is from the family Sciuridae (genus: Cynomys). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 30.7 cm (1′ 1″). On average, White-tailed prairie dogs can have babies 1 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 white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) is found in western Wyoming and western Colorado with small areas in eastern Utah and southern Montana. The largest populations are in Wyoming where they are known colloquially as “chiselers”. This prairie dog species lives at an elevation between 5,000 and 10,000 feet, generally a higher elevation than other prairie dog species. Its predators include black-footed ferrets, badgers, and golden eagles.
Animals of the same family as a White-tailed prairie dog
We found other animals of the Sciuridae family:
- Low’s squirrel with a weight of 85 grams
- Indian giant squirrel bringing 1.06 kilos (2.34 lbs) to the scale
- Layard’s palm squirrel with 2 babies per litter
- Speckled ground squirrel with a weight of 252 grams
- Northern Idaho ground squirrel with a weight of 300 grams
- Gunnison’s prairie dog with a weight of 798 grams
- Tufted ground squirrel bringing 1.35 kilos (2.98 lbs) to the scale
- Mexican prairie dog with a weight of 900 grams
- Sanborn’s squirrel with a weight of 136 grams
- Eastern gray squirrel with a weight of 546 grams
Animals with the same weight as a White-tailed prairie dog
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Cynomys leucurus:
- Mottle-faced tamarin bringing 803 grams to the scale
- Green ringtail possum with a weight of 1.15 kilos (2.54 lbs)
- Spotted linsang with a weight of 1.14 kilos (2.51 lbs)
- Indian flying fox bringing 822 grams to the scale
- Molina’s hog-nosed skunk bringing 960 grams to the scale
- Sunda flying lemur with a weight of 1.11 kilos (2.45 lbs)
- Black squirrel monkey bringing 784 grams to the scale
- Travancore flying squirrel bringing 794 grams to the scale
- Montane guinea pig with a weight of 1 kilos (2.2 lbs)
- Bronze quoll bringing 896 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a White-tailed prairie dog
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as White-tailed prairie dog:
- Squirrel-toothed rat with a size of 26.4 cm (0′ 11″)
- Meerkat with a size of 28.6 cm (1′ 0″)
- Black dwarf porcupine with a size of 35.2 cm (1′ 2″)
- Moonrat with a size of 32.7 cm (1′ 1″)
- Back-striped weasel with a size of 28.7 cm (1′ 0″)
- Black-headed night monkey with a size of 35.7 cm (1′ 3″)
- Collie’s squirrel with a size of 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Black-bearded flying fox with a size of 28.5 cm (1′ 0″)
- Brown-tailed mongoose with a size of 29.7 cm (1′ 0″)
- White-eared opossum with a size of 36 cm (1′ 3″)
Animals with the same litter size as a White-tailed prairie dog
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (5) as a White-tailed prairie dog: