Dipus Sagitta
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The northern three-toed jerboa (''Dipus sagitta'') is a species of
rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...
in the family
Dipodidae Jerboas () are the members of the family Dipodidae. They are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia. They tend to live in hot deserts. When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are preyed on by little owls ('' ...
. It is the only extant species within the genus ''Dipus''. It ranges across
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
,
Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
,
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
,
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
. A common species, the
International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...
rates it as being of "
least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
".


Description

The northern three-toed jerboa has a head-and-body length of and a tail of . The weight is between . The upper parts are ochre-brown to reddish-brown, a white band stretches from the base of the tail across the hips, and the underparts are white. The hind feet have three toes, the central three
metatarsal bones The metatarsal bones or metatarsus (: metatarsi) are a group of five long bones in the midfoot, located between the tarsal bones (which form the heel and the ankle) and the phalanges ( toes). Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are ...
having fused to form a single structure. They have long white hairs on their upper surfaces and pads of stiff hairs under the toes. The long tail has a terminal tassel which is black with a white tip.


Distribution and habitat

This jerboa has a range extending from the
Don River The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...
and the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
region, through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Northern Iran and Kazakhstan, to Mongolia and Northern China. It lives in sandy deserts and semi-deserts, sandy pastures and pine forests on sandy ground. Although typically found between about , it occurs as high as in the
Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...
.


Ecology

The northern three-toed jerboa either lives alone or in pairs. It occupies an extensive home range in which there may be several burrows, several shallow temporary burrows and one main deep burrow. This has a steeply sloping main tunnel which then turns at an angle and ends in a nesting chamber, with several side chambers for the storage of food. The animal excavates the tunnel with its fore limbs, using its teeth to cut roots, and pushes soil out with its hind feet or nose, forming a characteristic fan-like mound of waste material. The burrow may be long and up to deep, and the animal can excavate passages at the rate of in ten minutes or so. The species is
nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...
and emerges after dark to forage primarily for seeds, but also eats grasses, shoots, leaves, bulbs, roots and insects. It moves
bipedally Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an animal moves by means of its two rear (or lower) limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' ' ...
, normally making hops that are about long, but making great bounds of when agitated. Breeding takes place during the summer with two or three litters, each averaging three or four young, being produced after a
gestation Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregn ...
period of 25 to 30 days. In the north of its range, this jerboa hibernates during the winter deep underground, usually from about November to March. In the man-made desert known as
Aralkum The Aralkum Desert ( Uzbek: Orolqum choʻli, Оролқум чўли, Kazakh: Аралқұм шөлі, Russian: Пустыня Аралкум) is a desert that has appeared since 1960 on the seabed once occupied by the Aral Sea. It lies to the ...
that has been formed as a result of the shrinkage of the
Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...
, the northern three-toed jerboa has made use of the new habitat where it lives alongside other small rodents including the Libyan jird, the midday jird and the
great gerbil The great gerbil (''Rhombomys opimus'') is a large rodent found throughout much of Central Asia. Description The largest of the gerbils, great gerbils have a head and body length of . Their skulls are distinctive by having two grooves in each i ...
. These rodents are about four times more abundant on the dried-up seabed than in the surrounding terrain, and the presence of this abundance of rodent
prey Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not ki ...
has attracted
carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...
s such as the
red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...
, the
corsac fox The corsac fox (''Vulpes corsac''), also known simply as a corsac, is a medium-sized fox found in steppes, semi-deserts and deserts in Central Asia, ranging into Mongolia and northern China. Since 2004, it has been classified as ''least concer ...
, the
steppe polecat The steppe polecat (''Mustela eversmanii''), also known as the white or masked polecat, is a species of mustelid native to Central and Eastern Europe and Central and East Asia.It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because of its wi ...
, the
marbled polecat The marbled polecat (''Vormela peregusna'') is a small mammal belonging to the genus ''Vormela'' within the mustelid subfamily Ictonychinae. ''Vormela'' is from the German language, German word , which means "little worm". The specific name (zool ...
and the Turkestan wildcat.


Status

''Dipus sagitta'' is a common species in suitable habitat across its wide range. It is presumed to have a large total population and is a pioneering species, often being the first small rodent to occupy new habitat, such as the drying seabed of the
Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...
. No specific threats to this species have been identified, and the
International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...
has assessed its conservation status as being of "
least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
".


References


Further reading

{{Taxonbar, from=Q929776 Dipodidae Jerboa, Northern Three-toed Mammals described in 1773 Taxa named by Peter Simon Pallas Taxonomy articles created by Polbot