Hotson's jerboa or the Iranian jerboa (Allactaga hotsoni ), is a species of rodent in the family Dipodidae. It is found in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan.
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal",...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Among animals, viviparity is the development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. The term 'viviparity' and its adjective form 'viviparous'...
Jumping (saltation) can be distinguished from running, galloping, and other gaits where the entire body is temporarily airborne by the relatively l...
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct ...
Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy charac...
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starts withHotson's jerboa is native to Pakistan, Afghanistan and eastern Iran, at altitudes between 200 and 1,500 m (656 and 4,921 ft) above sea level. Its typical habitats are gravel and stony deserts and mountain steppe areas with sparse vegetation.
Hotson's jerboa is a nocturnal, solitary rodent and digs long tunnels in hard ground in which to live. The tunnels are of three types; temporary short burrows with several entrances and several tunnels and a single chamber; breeding burrows with more and longer tunnels, more numerous entrances and a nest chamber at least 30 cm (12 in) below ground level; winter burrows with a single long tunnel, usually horizontal but with the single chamber some way beneath the ground surface, in which the animal hibernates. This jerboa feeds on seeds and such desert plants as Artemisia aucheri, Anabasis aphylla and Peganum harmala ; it stores pieces of stem and leaf in storage chambers inside the burrow. It has been found that the jerboa is more active at night when the moon is not shining, and at the beginning and the end of the lunar cycle. This is likely to be an anti-predator adaptation connected with its bipedal gait and the scant vegetation in the areas it inhabits.
Hotson's jerboa has a wide range and is presumed to have a large total population. The population trend is unknown, but no particular threats to the animal have been detected and its habitat is of too poor quality to be worth taking under cultivation. Any decline in total population is likely to be small and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
