Hotson's jerboa or the Iranian jerboa (''Allactaga hotsoni''), is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

in the family

Dipodidae Jerboas (from ar, جربوع ') are hopping desert Rodent, rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia, and are members of the family Dipodidae. They tend to live in hot deserts. When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are pre ...

. It is found in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Taxonomy

Hotson's jerboa was first described in 1920 by the British zoologist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appoin ...

as ''Allactaga hotsoni''. He named it in honour of the army officer and naturalist John Ernest Buttery Hotson, who collected plants and mammal specimens in

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

during the period 1915 to 1920. The small mammals were sent to Oldfield Thomas for examination; another mammal,

Hotson's mouse-like hamster Hotson's mouse-like hamster (''Calomyscus hotsoni'') also known as Hotson's calomyscus or Hotson's brush-tailed mouse is a species of rodent in the family Calomyscidae. It is endemic to southwestern Pakistan and southeastern Iran (Musser and Carl ...

(''Calomyscus hotsoni''), was also named after its collector.

Distribution and habitat

Hotson's jerboa is native to Pakistan, Afghanistan and eastern Iran, at altitudes between above sea level. Its typical habitats are gravel and stony deserts and mountain steppe areas with sparse vegetation.

Behaviour

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 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 ''Anabasis aphylla'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae, native to the region surrounding the Caspian Sea, Central Asia, and Xinjiang and western Gansu provinces of China. A many-branched shrub usually found growing in al ...

'' and ''

Peganum harmala ''Peganum harmala'', commonly called wild rue, Syrian rue, African rue, esfand or espand,Mahmoud OmidsalaEsfand: a common weed found in Persia, Central Asia, and the adjacent areasEncyclopedia Iranica Vol. VIII, Fasc. 6, pp. 583–584. Originall ...

''; 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.

Status

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 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q306835 Allactaga Mammals of Afghanistan Mammals of Pakistan Jerboa, Hotson's Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Mammals described in 1920 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas