What is the maximal age a Hispid cotton rat reaches?
An adult Hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) usually gets as old as 5.17 years.
Hispid cotton rats are around 27 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 6 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 4 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Muridae family (genus: Sigmodon), a Hispid cotton rat caries out around 5 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 2 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 16.7 cm (0′ 7″).
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 hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is a rodent species long thought to occur in parts of South America, Central America, and southern North America. However, recent taxonomic revisions, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data, have split this widely distributed species into three separate species (S. hispidus, S. toltecus, and S. hirsutus). The southern edge of the S. hispidus distribution is likely near the Rio Grande, where it meets the northern distribution of S. toltecus (formerly S. h. toltecus). The northern extent of S. hispidus distribution is to the Platte River in Nebraska and from Arizona to Virginia. Adult size is total length 202–340 mm (7.9–13 in); tail 87–122 mm (3.4-4.8 in), frequently broken or stubbed; hind foot 29–35 mm (1-1.3 in); ear 16–20 mm (0.6-0.9 in); mass 50-250 g (1.7-9 oz). They have been used as laboratory animals.
Animals of the same family as a Hispid cotton rat
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Muridae):
- Montane Oldfield mouse bringing the scale to 77 grams
- Plateau mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Fat sand rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Taiga vole with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Rosalinda’s Oldfield mouse bringing the scale to 77 grams
- Molaccan prehensile-tailed rat bringing the scale to 148 grams
- Rahm’s brush-furred rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Cotton mouse becoming 1.25 years old
- Northern bog lemming with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Mottled-tailed shrew mouse bringing the scale to 18 grams
Animals that reach the same age as Hispid cotton rat
With an average age of 5.17 years, Hispid cotton rat are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Xerus erythropus usually reaching 6 years
- Sundevall’s jird usually reaching 5.58 years
- Brown-tailed mongoose usually reaching 4.75 years
- Hairy-tailed mole usually reaching 5 years
- European water vole usually reaching 5 years
- White-bellied duiker usually reaching 5.25 years
- Virginia opossum usually reaching 5 years
- Greater cane rat usually reaching 4.25 years
- Lesser Egyptian jerboa usually reaching 6 years
- Bank vole usually reaching 4.83 years
Animals with the same number of babies Hispid cotton rat
The same number of babies at once (5) are born by:
- Tundra vole
- Asian garden dormouse
- Olive-backed pocket mouse
- Daurian pika
- Sagebrush vole
- Montane vole
- Dark bolo mouse
- Cape mole-rat
- Norway lemming
- Kultarr
Weighting as much as Hispid cotton rat
A fully grown Hispid cotton rat reaches around 111 grams (0.24 lbs). So do these animals:
- Tanala tufted-tailed rat with 90 grams
- Lesser ricefield rat with 104 grams
- Spotted ground squirrel with 107 grams
- Mountain viscacha rat with 124 grams
- Brazilian spiny tree-rat with 108 grams
- Candango mouse with 97 grams
- Green bush squirrel with 100 grams
- White-tailed antelope squirrel with 104 grams
- Daurian pika with 131 grams
- Mazama pocket gopher with 93 grams
Animals as big as a Hispid cotton rat
Those animals grow as big as a Hispid cotton rat:
- Striped bush squirrel with 17.8 cm (0′ 8″)
- Lewis’s tuco-tuco with 17.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- White-bellied mosaic-tailed rat with 15.3 cm (0′ 7″)
- Edible dormouse with 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Little woolly mouse opossum with 13.7 cm (0′ 6″)
- Bridges’s degu with 15.9 cm (0′ 7″)
- Ferreira’s spiny tree-rat with 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Alpine pika with 17.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Dwarf flying fox with 14.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Woolly mouse opossum with 16.8 cm (0′ 7″)