What is the maximal age a California ground squirrel reaches?
An adult California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi) usually gets as old as 5 years.
California ground squirrels are around 28 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 9 grams (0.02 lbs) and measure 5.6 cm (0′ 3″). As a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Spermophilus), a California ground squirrel caries out around 6 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 1 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 21.9 cm (0′ 9″).
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 California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi), also known as the Beechey ground squirrel, is a common and easily observed ground squirrel of the western United States and the Baja California Peninsula; it is common in Oregon and California and its range has relatively recently extended into Washington and northwestern Nevada. Formerly placed in Spermophilus, as Spermophilus beecheyi, it was reclassified in Otospermophilus in 2009 as it became clear that Spermophilus as previously defined was not a natural (monophyletic) group. A full species account was published for this species in 2016.
Animals of the same family as a California ground squirrel
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Sciuridae):
- Travancore flying squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Wyoming ground squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Plantain squirrel becoming 9.58 years old
- Tarbagan marmot with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Yellow-cheeked chipmunk bringing the scale to 91 grams
- Yellow ground squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Thomas’s rope squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Belding’s ground squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Speckled ground squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel becoming 7.08 years old
Animals that reach the same age as California ground squirrel
With an average age of 5 years, California ground squirrel are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Giant golden mole usually reaching 4 years
- Bank vole usually reaching 4.83 years
- Euphrates jerboa usually reaching 4.17 years
- Woolley’s false antechinus usually reaching 4 years
- Sundevall’s jird usually reaching 5.58 years
- Southern long-nosed bat usually reaching 5 years
- Prevost’s squirrel usually reaching 5.67 years
- European water vole usually reaching 5 years
- Sand-colored soft-furred rat usually reaching 4 years
- White-tailed antelope squirrel usually reaching 5.75 years
Animals with the same number of babies California ground squirrel
The same number of babies at once (6) are born by:
- Chinese striped hamster
- Bronze quoll
- Flat-haired mouse
- Steppe mouse
- Townsend’s pocket gopher
- Northern quoll
- Bornean bearded pig
- Brush-tailed phascogale
- Bobak marmot
- Common shrew
Weighting as much as California ground squirrel
A fully grown California ground squirrel reaches around 598 grams (1.32 lbs). So do these animals:
- Brumback’s night monkey with 603 grams
- Bougainville monkey-faced bat with 573 grams
- Giant white-tailed rat with 644 grams
- Bismarck giant rat with 612 grams
- Eastern gray squirrel with 546 grams
- Broad-faced potoroo with 499 grams
- Mexican fox squirrel with 697 grams
- Angolan kusimanse with 700 grams
- Moustached tamarin with 557 grams
- Slender mongoose with 530 grams