What is the maximal age a Mongolian gerbil reaches?
An adult Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) usually gets as old as 2 years.
Mongolian gerbils are around 25 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 8.9 cm (0′ 4″). As a member of the Muridae family (genus: Meriones), a Mongolian gerbil caries out around 5 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 3 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 11.2 cm (0′ 5″).
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 Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (Meriones unguiculatus) is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Body size is typically 110–135mm, with a 95–120mm tail, and body weight 60–130g, with adult males larger than females. The animal is used in science and kept as a small house pet. Their use in science dates back to the latter half of the 19th century, but they only started to be kept as pets after 1954, when they were brought to the United States. However, their use in scientific research has fallen out of favor.
Animals of the same family as a Mongolian gerbil
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Muridae):
- North African gerbil with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Buffoon striped grass mouse bringing the scale to 26 grams
- Hummelinck’s vesper mouse bringing the scale to 27 grams
- Western shrew mouse bringing the scale to 21 grams
- Balkan snow vole with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Mount Apo forest mouse bringing the scale to 34 grams
- Cape gerbil with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Barbary striped grass mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Four-striped grass mouse becoming 2.83 years old
- Large vesper mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
Animals that reach the same age as Mongolian gerbil
With an average age of 2 years, Mongolian gerbil are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Eurasian pygmy shrew usually reaching 2 years
- Wongai ningaui usually reaching 2 years
- Southern red-backed vole usually reaching 1.67 years
- Eastern harvest mouse usually reaching 2.17 years
- Common yellow-toothed cavy usually reaching 1.75 years
- North American least shrew usually reaching 1.75 years
- Müller’s giant Sunda rat usually reaching 2 years
- Southern Plains woodrat usually reaching 2.25 years
- Honey possum usually reaching 2 years
- Pilbara ningaui usually reaching 2 years
Animals with the same number of babies Mongolian gerbil
The same number of babies at once (5) are born by:
- Pacific jumping mouse
- Smoky shrew
- Long-eared chipmunk
- Large vesper mouse
- Yellow ground squirrel
- Siberian large-toothed shrew
- Pilbara ningaui
- Variegated squirrel
- Kowari
- Piebald shrew
Weighting as much as Mongolian gerbil
A fully grown Mongolian gerbil reaches around 57 grams (0.13 lbs). So do these animals:
- Brock’s yellow-eared bat with 48 grams
- Natal multimammate mouse with 62 grams
- Star-nosed mole with 48 grams
- Townsend’s vole with 52 grams
- Gulf Coast kangaroo rat with 49 grams
- Master leaf-eared mouse with 68 grams
- Indonesian short-nosed fruit bat with 59 grams
- Van Deusen’s rat with 67 grams
- Flat-faced fruit-eating bat with 47 grams
- Euryoryzomys nitidus with 55 grams
Animals as big as a Mongolian gerbil
Those animals grow as big as a Mongolian gerbil:
- Gould’s mouse with 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Elegant water shrew with 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Pallas’s tube-nosed bat with 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Red tree vole with 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Small pencil-tailed tree mouse with 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Arends’s golden mole with 12.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Western red-backed vole with 9.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Rudd’s mouse with 9.3 cm (0′ 4″)
- Dwarf fat-tailed mouse opossum with 11.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Agile gracile opossum with 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)