Cheesman's gerbil (''Gerbilus cheesmani'') is a small

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 n ...

in the subfamily

Gerbillinae Gerbillinae is one of the subfamilies of the rodent family Muridae and includes the gerbils, jirds, and sand rats. Once known as desert rats, the subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats a ...

of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Muridae. It is distributed mainly in Arabian Peninsula to southwestern

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 ...

. It has orange-brown fur, white underparts, large eyes and a very long tail.

Taxonomy

Cheesman's gerbil was first described by the British zoologist Oldfield Thomas in 1919. It was named in honour of its discoverer, the British military officer, explorer and ornithologist

Robert Ernest Cheesman Major Robert Ernest Cheesman CBE (1878, Ashford, Kent – 13 February 1962) was an English military officer, explorer, ornithologist and author. He is noted for being one of the first to map the Arabian coast and credited with the discovery of a ...

who collected it while on an exploratory expedition in Saudi Arabia.

Description

This gerbil is similar in appearance to the

lesser Egyptian gerbil The lesser Egyptian gerbil (''Gerbillus gerbillus'') is a small species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is native to North Africa and the Sinai Peninsula, where it lives in sandy habitats. It is a common species, and the International Union ...

(''Gerbillus gerbillus'') and Anderson's gerbil (''Gerbillus andersoni''). It has a head-and-body length of between and a tail of between , and like them, the soles of the feet are hairy. The dorsal

pelage Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket ...

is orange-brown and the underparts are white.

Distribution and habitat

Cheesman's gerbil is native to the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. Its range includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Jordan. Its natural habitat is arid plains with sandy soils, deserts and

sabkha A sabkha ( ar, سبخة) is a coastal, supratidal mudflat or sandflat in which evaporite-saline minerals accumulate as the result of semiarid to arid climate. Sabkhas are gradational between land and intertidal zone within restricted coastal p ...

, flat coastal salt pans. it is often found in areas in which ''

Haloxylon ''Haloxylon'' is a genus of shrubs or small trees, belonging to the plant family Amaranthaceae. ''Haloxylon'' and its species are known by the common name saxaul. According to Dmitry Ushakov, the name borrowed from the Kazakh "seksevil". In moder ...

'', ''

Calligonum ''Calligonum'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae with about 80 species across the Mediterranean Sea region, Asia and North America. Description Plants of the genus ''Calligonum'' are shrubs, diffusely but irregularly branched, wi ...

'', ''

Ephedra alata ''Ephedra alata'' is a species of ''Ephedra''. These plants are perennial and xerophytic gymnosperm shrubs. Description ''Ephedra alata'' is a small terrestrial shrub or Chamaephyte. It is found primarily in dry desert environments. It is a ...

'' and ''

Artemisia Artemisia may refer to: People * Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC), queen of Halicarnassus under the First Persian Empire, naval commander during the second Persian invasion of Greece * Artemisia II of Caria (died 350 BC), queen of Caria under th ...

'' grow.

Ecology

This is a nocturnal species, spending the heat of the day in a burrow and emerging at night to forage for seeds and grasses, although it may become omnivorous in some circumstances. The hair on the soles of the feet is one adaptation it has for running across sand, and it can also make long leaps. By feeding at night it is able to make use of the dew on plants and it can conserve moisture by producing dry faeces and very little urine. It carries damp vegetation to its burrow which raises the humidity level inside. The burrow entrance is often at the base of a shrubby plant, and the gerbil closes the entrance when it enters by flicking sand across with its tail. It is preyed on by predators such as owls, the Arabian red fox and

Rüppell's fox Rüppell's fox (''Vulpes rueppellii''), also called Rüppell's sand fox, is a fox species living in desert and semi-desert regions of North Africa, the Middle East, and southwestern Asia. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List ...

Status

''G. cheesmani'' is a common species, has a wide range and is presumed to have a large total population. The population trend seems to be stable and no particular threats to the animal have been identified. 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 nat ...

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=Q1766332 Gerbillus Rodents of Asia Gerbil, Cheesman's Fauna of Jordan Mammals of the Arabian Peninsula Mammals described in 1919 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas