Williams's jerboa (''Allactaga williamsi'') is a species of

jerboa Jerboas (from ar, جربوع ') are hopping desert 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 preyed on b ...

s native to

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 ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

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

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Description

Similar to the other jerboas in the

Allactaga The genus ''Allactaga'' contains the four and five-toed jerboas of Asia. They are small mammals belonging to the order of rodents. They are characteristically known as the hopping rodents of the desert and semi-arid regions. They have long hind f ...

genus, the Williams's Jerboa are small hopping rodents of desert regions and have large ears and a long tail. The tail assists and serves as support when the jerboa is standing upright. They have long hind feet and short forelegs. The forelimbs of the jerboa serve as a pair of hands for feeding, grooming, etc. The males in this species do not have

bacula Bacula is an open-source, enterprise-level computer backup system for heterogeneous networks. It is designed to automate backup tasks that had often required intervention from a systems administrator or computer operator. Bacula supports Lin ...

Distribution and habitat

Williams's jerboa is native to Anatolia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and northwestern Iran. A separate population is found in central Afghanistan. Its typical habitat is steppe with scanty vegetation cover. It occurs in disturbed areas when sufficient suitable habitat remain but is not normally found in cultivated areas. It favours semi-arid regions and the foothills of mountainous regions. In the west of its range it is found at altitudes of up to but ranges as high as in Afghanistan.

Behaviour

Williams's jerboa is mainly nocturnal and spends the day in a system of burrows. Emerging at night, it feeds on insects and plant material. The Williams's jerboa is a common food source for the

long-eared owl The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook o ...

.Hizal, Erdem. "Diet of the Long Eared Owl, Asio Otus, in Central Anatolia (Aves: Strigidae)."Zoology in the Middle East 59.2 (2013): 118. Web. 5 Oct. 2013. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09397140.2013.810866#.UlNd4dLoaSo>. Breeding takes place in spring and summer when two litters, each consisting of three to six young, are reared.

Status

Williams's jerboa has a wide range and, although it is found at relatively low densities, its total population is presumed to be large. It is common in parts of Azerbaijan but is rarer and has become locally extinct in parts of Turkey. The major threat it faces is the conversion of its steppe habitat into cultivated land. 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 listed 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=Q1763151 Allactaga Jerboa, Williams's Mammals described in 1897 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas