How big does a Rajah spiny rat get? Here is an overview over the average adult age:
A grown Rajah spiny rat (Maxomys rajah) reaches an average size of 16.7 cm (0′ 7″).
When born, they have an average size of 0 cm (0′ 0″). A full-grown exemplary reaches roughly 150 grams (0.33 lbs). A Rajah spiny rat has 3 babies at once. The Rajah spiny rat (genus: Maxomys) is a member of the family Muridae.
As a reference: Humans reach an average body size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) while carrying 62 kg (137 lbs). A human woman is pregnant for 280 days (40 weeks) and on average become 75 years old.
The Rajah spiny rat (Maxomys rajah) also known as the brown spiny rat is endemic to Thailand and Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the adjacent islands (Payne et al., 1985). Corbet and Hill (1992) mention that Maxomys rats are often the most common rodent in the Southeast Asian tropical forest, from most of the Malay Archipelago to Sulawesi, Palawan and Borneo. This species can be found in primary forest and logged-over forest. According to Payne et al.,(1985) this species lives in primary or secondary forest and tends to favour sandy and lowland sites. This terrestrial species is mostly active on the ground but occasionally climbs into the upper canopy. Its tend to live separately from other rats.M. rajah is medium in size where the upperparts are brown, darker in the midline, with numerous stiff gray-brown spines. The underparts are white with many short, white spines, and usually with a dark brown streak along the middle in adults, but never with an orange throat patch. The white color of the underparts extend down in a narrow line to the feet. Above the tail is brown, pale below and thinly haired. Usually, the range of the measurement of M. rajah are HB 138.1-218, T 142-210, T/HB = 102.9-109.3%, HF 33.8-43, E 21.9-22.3, Wt 71-218 g, D 1003/1003=16, M 2+2=8. Skull: gl 40.9-48.6, iob 6.6-7.4, mt 6.9-8.1.The immature Red Spiny Rats, M. surifer is similar M. rajah and quite difficult to distinguish. (Payne et al., 1985).M.rajah is a common species but Yasuda et al., (2000) reported that very little is known about the ecological features of Maxomys rats.
Animals of the same family as a Rajah spiny rat
We found other animals of the Muridae family:
- Pouched gerbil with 2 babies per litter
- Ryukyu mouse with a weight of 14 grams
- Lesser mole-rat with 3 babies per litter
- Temminck’s striped mouse with a size of 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Zempoaltepec with a size of 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Black-tailed gerbil with 4 babies per litter
- Peters’s striped mouse with 2 babies per litter
- Eastern white-eared giant rat with a size of 33.9 cm (1′ 2″)
- Cerrado mouse with a weight of 24 grams
- Altiplano chinchilla mouse with a weight of 170 grams
Animals with the same size as a Rajah spiny rat
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Rajah spiny rat:
- Hastings River mouse with a size of 16 cm (0′ 7″)
- Altai mole with a size of 16.9 cm (0′ 7″)
- Steinbach’s tuco-tuco with a size of 19.6 cm (0′ 8″)
- Lesser Angolan epauletted fruit bat with a size of 16.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- Ruwenzori otter shrew with a size of 16 cm (0′ 7″)
- Small Japanese mole with a size of 14 cm (0′ 6″)
- Lady Burton’s rope squirrel with a size of 15.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Northern Idaho ground squirrel with a size of 18.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Geelvink Bay flying fox with a size of 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Douglas squirrel with a size of 19.1 cm (0′ 8″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Rajah spiny rat
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (3) as a Rajah spiny rat:
- Major’s pine vole
- Altai birch mouse
- Numbat
- Japanese mountain mole
- Western red-backed vole
- Pygmy hog
- Bushy-tailed woodrat
- Graphiurus hueti
- Eastern red bat
- Hoary fox
Animals with the same weight as a Rajah spiny rat
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Maxomys rajah:
- Alston’s mouse opossum bringing 132 grams to the scale
- Red spiny rat bringing 150 grams to the scale
- Savanna gerbil bringing 121 grams to the scale
- Lorentz’s mosaic-tailed rat bringing 150 grams to the scale
- Beaufort’s naked-backed fruit bat bringing 165 grams to the scale
- Plateau pika bringing 160 grams to the scale
- Four-striped ground squirrel bringing 180 grams to the scale
- Alcorn’s pocket gopher bringing 150 grams to the scale
- New Guinean rat bringing 133 grams to the scale
- Lesser stick-nest rat bringing 150 grams to the scale