What is the maximal age a Honey possum reaches?
An adult Honey possum (Tarsipes rostratus) usually gets as old as 2 years.
Honey possums are around 61 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 4.51 kg (9.95 lbs) and measure 5.6 cm (0′ 3″). As a member of the Tarsipedidae family (genus: Tarsipes), a Honey possum caries out around 2 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 3 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 7.7 cm (0′ 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 honey possum or noolbenger refers to Tarsipes rostratus, a tiny species of marsupial that feeds on the nectar and pollen of a diverse range of flowering plants. Found in southwest Australia, it is an important pollinator for such plants as Banksia attenuata, Banksia coccinea and Adenanthos cuneatus.
Animals that reach the same age as Honey possum
With an average age of 2 years, Honey possum are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Eurasian pygmy shrew usually reaching 2 years
- Slender-tailed dunnart usually reaching 2 years
- Campbell’s dwarf hamster usually reaching 1.75 years
- Merriam’s kangaroo rat usually reaching 2 years
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat usually reaching 2.25 years
- Southern Plains woodrat usually reaching 2.25 years
- Malabar spiny dormouse usually reaching 1.67 years
- Tundra vole usually reaching 1.75 years
- Swamp antechinus usually reaching 2 years
- Wongai ningaui usually reaching 2 years
Animals with the same number of babies Honey possum
The same number of babies at once (2) are born by:
- Saharan striped polecat
- Angoni vlei rat
- European pine vole
- Duthie’s golden mole
- Radde’s shrew
- Saiga antelope
- Indomalayan pencil-tailed tree mouse
- New Guinean jumping mouse
- Mexican woodrat
- Tome’s spiny rat
Weighting as much as Honey possum
A fully grown Honey possum reaches around 9 grams (0.02 lbs). So do these animals:
- Little broad-nosed bat with 10 grams
- Large-toothed shrew with 8 grams
- Brazilian brown bat with 9 grams
- Fog shrew with 8 grams
- American shrew mole with 9 grams
- Micronycteris brachyotis with 10 grams
- Blasius’s horseshoe bat with 10 grams
- Glen’s wattled bat with 10 grams
- Northern broad-nosed bat with 8 grams
- Gnome fruit-eating bat with 10 grams
Animals as big as a Honey possum
Those animals grow as big as a Honey possum:
- Flat-skulled shrew with 7.3 cm (0′ 3″)
- Triaenops rufus with 8.7 cm (0′ 4″)
- Roborovski dwarf hamster with 7.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Gray spiny mouse with 8.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- Grasse’s shrew with 6.3 cm (0′ 3″)
- Antillean fruit-eating bat with 8.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Mottled-tailed shrew mouse with 8.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- White-eared pocket mouse with 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Gray spiny mouse with 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Gansu mole with 8.9 cm (0′ 4″)