#jerboas

Звери самые маленькие, 1927. Illustrated by Vasily Vatagin.

Today's animal of the day is the Lesser Egyptian Jerboa (Jaculus jaculus)!

Photo credit: Animalita on iNaturalist

These adorable little rodents can be found in rocky desert regions throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. I've personally heard a lot of people call them "kangaroo rats" since they have large hindlegs and will hop around like little kangaroos. However, kangaroo rats are actually a totally unrelated group of North American rodents that belong to the family Heteromyidae, while jerboas belong to Dipodidae. The two groups actually convergently evolved their similar appearances and locomotion styles, since both live in open desert environments where there aren't a lot of places for them to hide, and hopping around allows them to more easily outpace and maneuver potential predators. This species can leap up to 9.8 ft in a single hop, and their long tails help to keep them balanced while they're on the go.

Photo credit: Elias Neideck

These tiny rodents are strictly nocturnal, when it is coolest out, and will spend this time foraging for seeds, insects, succulents, grasses, and desert truffles to eat. They use their strong sense of smell to locate food, and they've been known to travel over 6 miles in just a single night in order to find it, which is pretty far for such a little guy. Because water is often extremely scarce, they've evolved to be able to get all the moisture they need from the plants that they eat, and they can go a very long time without actually drinking water.

Photo credit: Bouazza Abdellah

During the day, jerboas seek shelter in underground burrows, which they dig in counterclockwise spirals. These burrows often have multiple entrances and exits in case they need to make a sneaky escape from a predators, which they'll often cover up or plug using clumps of sand in order to keep the heat and predators out and moisture in. These burrows are often very complex and will have various rooms used for food storage, hibernation, and a nesting chamber at the very bottom. During times of extreme heat, they will go through what is called aestivation, which is basically like hibernation, but for when it gets too hot out instead of cold. These jerboas will sometimes also hibernate during the winter months, but this has only been documented a handful of times.

Photo credit: Jonathan Ben Simon

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

@leonardoeatscarrots

Here you go, I hope this is good! (Also hope this is the right character, when I look up Pathologic Plague Rat I get results for both a character called Plague who is not a rat and this Rat Prophet guy, presumed the rat was the right one lol)

Tossed some jerboas in there too because the wiki mentions that while this dude's a rat (or a guy in a rat mask, I guess?) all the other rodents in the game are actually jerboas

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