6/25/2004: Jerboa

No, it's not a bat, those things aren't wings. It's a jerboa, a rodent that lives in mostly drier areas of Asia and Northern Africa.

This little guy's best feature is the ears, but that's because he's a "long-eared Jerboa" - not all Jerboas have ears like that. Their best feature as a species is a combination of really powerful legs and a massive tail. They're little tiny things, only about 3-6 inches (8-15 cm) long, but with their super-strength legs they jump - more than 6 feet (1.8 m) in a single bound.

Here, I'll find a picture of a slightly different one that shows the legs and tail.



There ya go.



A small-eared one in takeoff position.

Their metabolism is all oriented around surviving desert climates, and so they never drink - they get all their water from their food, which is plants and insects.

They also use the legs to dig, They're spectacular diggers, kicking up tons of ground behind them.

Strangely enough they are not related to gerbils.

Isn't this the thing that has the chaingun in the orielly spoof?
reminds me somehow of the rabbit in the search for the holy grail, I think it's the eyes.

<fond memories> hmm... i had several gerbils when i was growing up, and i seem to remember reading they were related...based on all of the digging and flinging of pine shavings out of the cage, and they had like 1 drop of pee and the hardest driest little turds, i'd put money on being related. i could look it up but it's almost quittin time. the aforementioned tiolet habits made them great pets because you didn't have to change their bedding every 3 days like a hamster or guina pig.

Looks like a gerbil sorta

Reminds me of a Kangaroo Rat.

Tastes like chicken...
BTW nice site

It used to be a nice site. Now that you're here, it's a wonderful site, ttb.

In the first pic, it looks like the man is squishing him!!!!!

Quote:

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce It used to be a nice site. Now that you're here, it's a wonderful site, ttb.

That's an Usul...

My first impression when I saw the pic showing legs, is of a monster truck.

My second thouht was of the
THE NOTORIOUS JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY and how I would love to bet the suck..er...gentlemen that my 'mouse' could jump farther than their frogs.

A small-eared one in takeoff position-

So does that mean that the long eared ones can fly?

http://www.explodingdog.com/january2...icouldfly.html