What is the maximal age a Merriam’s kangaroo rat reaches?
An adult Merriam’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys merriami) usually gets as old as 2 years.
Merriam’s kangaroo rats are around 30 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 3 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 27.5 cm (0′ 11″). As a member of the Heteromyidae family (genus: Dipodomys), a Merriam’s kangaroo rat caries out around 2 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 1 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 4.9 cm (0′ 2″).
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.
Merriam’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys merriami) is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. The species name commemorates Clinton Hart Merriam.
Animals of the same family as a Merriam’s kangaroo rat
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Heteromyidae):
- Panamanian spiny pocket mouse becoming 1.75 years old
- Bailey’s pocket mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Big-eared kangaroo rat bringing the scale to 78 grams
- Great Basin pocket mouse becoming 4 years old
- San Diego pocket mouse becoming 8.25 years old
- Southern spiny pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Chisel-toothed kangaroo rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Dark kangaroo mouse becoming 5.42 years old
- Desert pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Silky pocket mouse becoming 5 years old
Animals that reach the same age as Merriam’s kangaroo rat
With an average age of 2 years, Merriam’s kangaroo rat are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Common yellow-toothed cavy usually reaching 1.75 years
- Feather-tailed possum usually reaching 2 years
- Eastern harvest mouse usually reaching 2.17 years
- Long-tailed giant rat usually reaching 2 years
- Dusky antechinus usually reaching 2 years
- Swamp antechinus usually reaching 2 years
- Silky anteater usually reaching 2.25 years
- Panamanian spiny pocket mouse usually reaching 1.75 years
- Marsh rice rat usually reaching 2.33 years
- Wongai ningaui usually reaching 2 years
Animals with the same number of babies Merriam’s kangaroo rat
The same number of babies at once (2) are born by:
- Slender rat
- Somali serotine
- Small-toothed palm civet
- European hare
- Greater tree mouse
- Mountain degu
- Savi’s pipistrelle
- Gray-cheeked flying squirrel
- Saharan striped polecat
- Japanese house bat
Weighting as much as Merriam’s kangaroo rat
A fully grown Merriam’s kangaroo rat reaches around 37 grams (0.08 lbs). So do these animals:
- Olrog’s chaco mouse with 32 grams
- Black-tailed mouse with 40 grams
- Indian roundleaf bat with 44 grams
- Soft-furred Oldfield mouse with 35 grams
- Kelaart’s long-clawed shrew with 36 grams
- Greater Egyptian gerbil with 42 grams
- Ethiopian thicket rat with 36 grams
- Yellow-necked mouse with 31 grams
- El Dorado grass mouse with 39 grams
- Fawn hopping mouse with 34 grams
Animals as big as a Merriam’s kangaroo rat
Those animals grow as big as a Merriam’s kangaroo rat:
- Rüppell’s pipistrelle with 4.4 cm (0′ 2″)
- Tailed tailless bat with 5.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Daubenton’s bat with 4.4 cm (0′ 2″)
- Proboscis bat with 4.2 cm (0′ 2″)
- Egyptian slit-faced bat with 5.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Thomas’s sac-winged bat with 4 cm (0′ 2″)
- Inyo shrew with 5.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Least shrew tenrec with 5.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Pacific sheath-tailed bat with 4.7 cm (0′ 2″)
- Orange leaf-nosed bat with 4.9 cm (0′ 2″)