What is the maximal age a Spinifex hopping mouse reaches?
An adult Spinifex hopping mouse (Notomys alexis) usually gets as old as 5.17 years.
Spinifex hopping mouses are around 32 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 3.5 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Muridae family (genus: Notomys), their offspring is 4 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 10 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 spinifex hopping mouse (Notomys alexis), also known as the tarkawara or tarrkawarra, occurs throughout the central and western Australian arid zones, occupying both spinifex-covered sand flats and stabilised sand dunes, and loamy mulga and melaleuca flats.The population fluctuates greatly: in normal years it is sparsely distributed and probably confined to sandy country; after rain the population explodes and spreads to other types of habitat for a time. They are mostly seen at night, bounding across open ground on their large hind feet, with tails extended and the body almost horizontal. As semi-fossorial, burrowing surface foragers, the tiny hopping mice spend a great deal of energy not just foraging for food, but also transporting it back to their burrows. In fact, it was found that the total energy spent on transporting food in relation to energy investment on burrows far outweighed any other similar type of species (White, 2006).
Animals of the same family as a Spinifex hopping mouse
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Muridae):
- Eastern small-toothed rat bringing the scale to 357 grams
- Sundevall’s jird becoming 5.58 years old
- Djoongari with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Mindanao hairy-tailed rat bringing the scale to 186 grams
- Dark-tailed tree rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Greater bandicoot rat with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Fringe-tailed gerbil with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Rosalinda’s Oldfield mouse bringing the scale to 77 grams
- Mexican harvest mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Large pencil-tailed tree mouse bringing the scale to 28 grams
Animals that reach the same age as Spinifex hopping mouse
With an average age of 5.17 years, Spinifex hopping mouse are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Berdmore’s ground squirrel usually reaching 4.25 years
- Northern grasshopper mouse usually reaching 5 years
- Guyenne spiny rat usually reaching 4.75 years
- Numbat usually reaching 6 years
- Bank vole usually reaching 4.83 years
- Dobson’s shrew tenrec usually reaching 5.58 years
- House mouse usually reaching 6 years
- Bunny rat usually reaching 5.5 years
- Talazac’s shrew tenrec usually reaching 5.83 years
- White-tailed antelope squirrel usually reaching 5.75 years
Animals with the same number of babies Spinifex hopping mouse
The same number of babies at once (4) are born by:
- Western pygmy possum
- Side-striped jackal
- Wild boar
- European mink
- Large Japanese field mouse
- Plains pocket mouse
- Black-tailed gerbil
- American mink
- Bank vole
- Montane wood mouse
Weighting as much as Spinifex hopping mouse
A fully grown Spinifex hopping mouse reaches around 32 grams (0.07 lbs). So do these animals:
- Rufous-bellied bolo mouse with 32 grams
- Dark fruit-eating bat with 35 grams
- Macroscelides proboscideus with 38 grams
- Winter white dwarf hamster with 30 grams
- Nut-colored yellow bat with 30 grams
- Linnaeus’s mouse opossum with 36 grams
- Dorothy’s slender opossum with 37 grams
- Hooper’s mouse with 35 grams
- Anderson’s gerbil with 31 grams
- Spotted bolo mouse with 37 grams
Animals as big as a Spinifex hopping mouse
Those animals grow as big as a Spinifex hopping mouse:
- Smith’s shrew with 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Four-toed rice tenrec with 10.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Stephens’s kangaroo rat with 11.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Chinese water shrew with 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Wood sprite gracile opossum with 9.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- Olrog’s chaco mouse with 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Pteropus brunneus with 11.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mount Apo forest mouse with 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Rufous mouse opossum with 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Aceramarca gracile opossum with 8.3 cm (0′ 4″)