What is the maximal age a Merriam’s pocket mouse reaches?
An adult Merriam’s pocket mouse (Perognathus merriami) usually gets as old as 2.5 years.
When born, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 1.3 cm (0′ 1″). As a member of the Heteromyidae family (genus: Perognathus), their offspring is 4 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 5.8 cm (0′ 3″).
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 pocket mouse (Perognathus merriami) is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It is found in northeast Mexico and New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas in the United States. Its habitat is shortgrass prairie, desert areas with scrub and arid shrubland. The species is named to honor Clinton Hart Merriam, a biologist who first described several other members of the genus Perognathus, and first elucidated the principle of a “life zone” as a means of characterizing ecological areas with similar plant and animal communities.
Animals of the same family as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Heteromyidae):
- Painted spiny pocket mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Trinidad spiny pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Great Basin pocket mouse becoming 4 years old
- White-eared pocket mouse bringing the scale to 23 grams
- Little desert pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Great Basin pocket mouse bringing the scale to 24 grams
- San Joaquin pocket mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Gaumer’s spiny pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Desert kangaroo rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Desert pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that reach the same age as Merriam’s pocket mouse
With an average age of 2.5 years, Merriam’s pocket mouse are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Delany’s mouse usually reaching 2 years
- Grant’s golden mole usually reaching 2 years
- Common shrew usually reaching 2 years
- New Guinean quoll usually reaching 3 years
- Bicolored shrew usually reaching 3 years
- Heermann’s kangaroo rat usually reaching 2.33 years
- Merriam’s kangaroo rat usually reaching 2 years
- Lesser white-toothed shrew usually reaching 2.67 years
- Narrow-nosed planigale usually reaching 3 years
- White-footed dunnart usually reaching 2.5 years
Animals with the same number of babies Merriam’s pocket mouse
The same number of babies at once (4) are born by:
- Etruscan shrew
- Side-striped jackal
- African grass rat
- Little pocket mouse
- New Holland mouse
- Plateau pika
- Sierra Madre ground squirrel
- Boehm’s gerbil
- Boehm’s gerbil
- Colorado chipmunk
Weighting as much as Merriam’s pocket mouse
A fully grown Merriam’s pocket mouse reaches around 6 grams (0.01 lbs). So do these animals:
- De Winton’s long-eared bat with 6 grams
- White-bellied big-eared bat with 6 grams
- Southeastern myotis with 7 grams
- Sclater’s shrew with 7 grams
- Mount Lyell shrew with 5 grams
- Wagner’s mustached bat with 7 grams
- Eastern small-footed myotis with 5 grams
- Gambian slit-faced bat with 7 grams
- São Tomé free-tailed bat with 7 grams
- Little Japanese horseshoe bat with 7 grams
Animals as big as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
Those animals grow as big as a Merriam’s pocket mouse:
- Lesser striped shrew with 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Moupin pika with 5.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Taiwanese brown-toothed shrew with 6.7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Lowe’s shrew with 6.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Mexican long-tongued bat with 6.6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Eastern harvest mouse with 6.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Eurasian harvest mouse with 5.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Mindanao pygmy fruit bat with 6.4 cm (0′ 3″)
- Underwood’s long-tongued bat with 5.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Eurasian pygmy shrew with 5.7 cm (0′ 3″)