6/25/2004: Jerboa

[Undertoad]

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.