Jerboa – small nocturnal rodents found in hot sandy deserts across North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Asia. This gerbil’s favorite food is mainly roots, seeds and some small insects.
Jerboa has a rather funny appearance with a small body, a long snout that looks quite like a pig’s snout, a long tail, small, spindly hind legs like a bird’s legs, and two short, small front arms, mainly used to hold food.
According to Talia Y. Moore, a graduate student at the Robotics Institute at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Jerboa is quite aggressive, they will not easily ignore opponents who intend to compete with them for food. .
However, with their small bodies, they easily become food for humans and some other predators such as hawks, snakes… In addition to their unique appearance, this gerbil also has many interesting things. taste like:
Ability to accumulate water from food and store it in the body
Because they live in arid deserts, these gerbils have evolved a lot to be able to adapt to the ability to store water in their bodies. Most of them will get water from their daily food source and store it in their bodies.
Never pee!
It sounds funny, right, but that’s the truth.
They hardly urinate. This is considered one of the evolutionary traits that help survive in arid deserts. Additionally, not urinating makes them not smelly like some other rodents you know.
Raised as a pet
If you live in Germany, you can absolutely buy a gerbil and keep it like a normal pet.
Previously, the US also allowed the raising of gerbils until 2003. Because of allegations related to an infectious disease called monkeypox, they were banned from being raised on a large scale except in special cases (such as research purpose).
The way of moving is like a kangaroo
Jerboa moves with its hind legs, looking quite similar to the way a kangaroo moves. In addition, they are also compared to a high jumper. With the characteristics of a predator, they can jump 10 times higher than their body height, which is something not all animals can do.
Famous long ears
One thing that makes anyone who sees them interested is their big, long ears like those of rabbits. With a large size accounting for nearly half of their body size, these “super huge” ears help them hear sounds from far away so they don’t miss any hunting opportunities as well as Helps them detect enemies even kilometers away.
