#dipodidae

Euphrates Jerboa (Scarturus euphraticus), family Dipodidae, Lebanon

Euphrates Jerboa Scarturus euphratica

It is found in the Near East from Syria and Lebanon to Pakistan. The Euphrates jerboa's natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, shrubland, and hot deserts. Females may give birth to up to nine young. It is possible for the female to have three litters per year.

Sure, I'll do a species I haven't done before! Jerboas are so charming.

A small five-toed jerboa (Scarturus elater) in Kurchumskiy, Kazakhstan

Hairy-Footed Jerboa (Dipus sagitta)

Family: Jerboa Family (Dipodidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Like other species in the jerboa family, the Hairy-Footed Jerboa is bipedal - it utilizes its extremely long and surprisingly powerful hind legs to bound across sand at speeds of over 18mph, while its dramatically shorter front legs are used for digging and to allow it to bring its head to the ground when foraging. Found in sandy regions of China, Mongolia, Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, members of this species spend the day sheltering from heat and predators in a burrow, and emerge at night to feed on grasses, seeds, roots and small insects. Each Hairy-Footed Jerboa claims a relatively large territory in which it lives alone or occasionally in pairs, and within each territory there will be several shallow burrows used as emergency shelters if a predator should ambush the jerboa while it is feeding and a single larger burrow with two exits (one of which can be used to escape the burrow if a predator enters through the other), a main chamber for sleeping in and several smaller chambers used for storing food. A single female Hairy-Footed Jerboa will give birth to several litters in a single year (typically during the spring and early summer and then again in the late summer and early autumn/fall), and each newborn jerboa will be independent and fully mature at only around 3 months of age. This species is one of several desert-dwelling rodent species known to have colonized the Aralkum Desert (the world’s youngest desert, which was accidentally created in the 1960s when massive irrigation work carried out by the Soviet Union caused vast areas of the Aral Sea to dry up, turning the exposed seabed into a desert), and due to the newfound abundance of rodents several species of foxes, polecats and wildcats have come to settle in the area.

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Common name: Baluchistan pygmy jerboa, dwarf three-toed jerboa

Scientific name: Salpingotulus michaelis

Can be found in: deserts in Pakistan and Afganistan

Info: the Baluchistan pygmy jerboa is the only species in the genus Salpingotulus. Its tail is about double its size, with the body averaging around 4.3 cm (1.7 in) while the tail averages 8 cm (3.1 in). They travel by hopping, and live in burrows that tend to be dug under bushes.

They feed on seeds and leaves of desert plants, and their natural predators include the Leaf-Nosed Viper (Eristocophis mcmahoni), the trans-Caspian monitor lizard (Varanus caspius), and the sand cat (Felis margarita). They produce about two (2) litters a year, with two (2) to four (4) babies per litter.

While they might not clear buildings in a single leap, four-toed jerboas can jump pretty far! They are only about 20cm long, but when threatened these rodents can make leaps of up to 3 m at a time-- that’s 15 times their body length!