What is the maximal age a African pygmy mouse reaches?
An adult African pygmy mouse (Mus minutoides) usually gets as old as 3.08 years.
African pygmy mouses are around 20 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 2.5 cm (0′ 1″). As a member of the Muridae family (genus: Mus), a African pygmy mouse caries out around 4 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 4 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 99.5 cm (3′ 4″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
The African pygmy mouse (Mus minutoides) is one of the smallest rodents. It is widespread within sub-Saharan Africa, and is kept as a pet in other parts of the world. Like the common house mouse, it is a member of the enormous superfamily Muroidea, which includes about 1000 different species.Grey to brick-red overall, it is pale on the underside and has small but prominent triangular ears. Adults are between 30 and 80 mm (1.2 and 3.1 in) long, with a 20 to 40 mm (0.79 to 1.57 in) tail, and weigh from 3 to 12 g (0.11 to 0.42 oz).African pygmy mice reach breeding age at about 6 to 8 weeks. Pregnancy lasts for around 20 days and the litter of about three young is born blind and hairless. Their eyes open after 2 weeks, and weaning is complete after 4 weeks. The lifespan is about 2 years, although individual specimens have been reported to live over 4 years in captivity.The African pygmy mouse has a number of unique traits. It stacks pebbles in front of its burrow. Overnight, the pebbles gather dew and in the morning, the pygmy mouse drinks the dew on the pebbles. After that, it retires to its den. Its method of sex determination has also been found to differ from most mammals in that rearrangements of the X chromosome have led to many XY individuals actually being female.They live in colonies or in pairs in grass close to water and are excellent climbers.
Animals of the same family as a African pygmy mouse
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Muridae):
- Red-bellied mosaic-tailed rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Golden hamster becoming 10 years old
- Krebs’s fat mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Giant bushy-tailed cloud rat getting as big as 37.1 cm (1′ 3″)
- Pearson’s chaco mouse bringing the scale to 25 grams
- Mesquite mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Oligoryzomys chacoensis bringing the scale to 23 grams
- Allen’s woodrat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Sagebrush vole with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Southwestern water vole becoming 3.5 years old
Animals that reach the same age as African pygmy mouse
With an average age of 3.08 years, African pygmy mouse are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Northern short-tailed shrew usually reaching 2.75 years
- Tome’s spiny rat usually reaching 2.58 years
- Brazilian spiny tree-rat usually reaching 3.08 years
- Molina’s hog-nosed skunk usually reaching 3.33 years
- Silvery mole-rat usually reaching 3.08 years
- Woodland vole usually reaching 2.75 years
- African wading rat usually reaching 3 years
- Parantechinus bilarni usually reaching 3 years
- Little long-tailed dunnart usually reaching 3.17 years
- Japanese shrew mole usually reaching 3.5 years
Animals with the same number of babies African pygmy mouse
The same number of babies at once (4) are born by:
- White-footed mouse
- Woodland jumping mouse
- Pale gerbil
- Wild boar
- Blanford’s jerboa
- Alpine marmot
- Gracile tateril
- Pale fox
- California pocket mouse
- European hedgehog
Weighting as much as African pygmy mouse
A fully grown African pygmy mouse reaches around 6 grams (0.01 lbs). So do these animals:
- Chinese pipistrelle with 5 grams
- Lesser dog-like bat with 5 grams
- Sahelian tiny shrew with 6 grams
- Schlieffen’s bat with 5 grams
- Gambian slit-faced bat with 7 grams
- Small Asian sheath-tailed bat with 5 grams
- Abo bat with 6 grams
- Sind bat with 7 grams
- Verapaz shrew with 7 grams
- São Tomé free-tailed bat with 7 grams