Word Finder - jerboa

definition

Any of a number of species comprising most of the family Dipodidae, native to the deserts of Asia and northern Africa, being a small, jumping rodent with a long tufted tail, very small forefeet and very long hind legs.

In the latter are the coney, jerboa, several small rodents and the ibex.

Among smaller animals the jerboa and other descriptions of rat, and the wabar or cony are common; lizards and snakes are numerous, most of the latter being venomous.

The rock wallabies again have short tarsi of the hind legs, with a long pliable tail for climbing, like that of the tree kangaroo of New Guinea, or that of the jerboa.

The lion and the hunting-leopard, which may be considered as, in this epoch at least, Ethiopian types, extend thus far, besides various species of jerboa and other desert-loving forms.

The porcupine and a large Octodont rodent (Ctenodactylus), the jerboa (two species), the hare, and various other rodents are met with in Tunisia.

Of animals still found may be mentioned baboons and monkeys, the leopard, red lynx (Felis caracal), spotted hyena, aard wolf, wild cat, long-eared fox, jackals of various kinds, the dassie or rock rabbit, the scaly anteater, the ant bear (aardvaark), the mongoose and the spring haas, a rodent of the jerboa family.

The gundi is a diurnal species, inhabiting rocky districts, and having habits very similar to those of a jerboa.

The ichneumon (Pharaohs rat) is common and often tame; the coney and jerboa are found in the eastern mountains.

The resemblance between the jerboa's and the bird's skeleton is owing to adaptation to a similar mode of existence.

In the young jerboa the proportion of the femur to the rest of the leg is the same as in ordinary running animals.

When about to spring, this jerboa raises its body by means of the hinder extremities, and supports itself at the same time upon its tail, while the fore-feet are so closely pressed to the breast as to be scarcely visible, which doubtless suggested the name Dipus, or twofooted.

There are two or three varieties of hares, and a species of jerboa and several genera of mongooses.

The jerboa group (Dipodidae, or Jaculidae) is also mainly an Old World type, although its aberrant representatives the jumping-mice (Zapus) have effected an entrance into Arctic North America.

The Meriones (four species) and the jerboa (five species) are only met with in the steppe region.

The Persian jerboa (Alactaga indica) is also a nocturnal burrowing animal, feeding chiefly on grain, which it stores up in underground repositories, closing these when full, and only drawing upon them when the supply of food above ground is exhausted (see also Jumping Mouse).