Tristram's jird (''Meriones tristrami'') is a species of
rodent that lives in the
Middle East. It is named after the Reverend
Henry Baker Tristram who collected the first specimens. It is up to long, and lives in burrows in steppes and semi-deserts from
Turkey and the
Caucasus to
Israel and
Iran. Records from the Greek island of
Kos represent the only gerbils reported from Europe, outside the former Soviet Union. It is a common, widespread species, and is not considered to be threatened.
Description
''Meriones tristrami'' reaches a total length (excluding the tail) of , with a
skull around long.
Its fur is "dark yellowish-brown" on its back, "yellowish orange" on its sides, and white on the belly.
The soles of its hind feet are hairless at the heels, and it has a much smaller
auditory bulla than the other jirds that occur in the same region.
The tail is bi-colored, and ends in an inconspicuous black tuft, about one quarter of the length of the tail.
Distribution and ecology
''Meriones tristrami'' is found from
Turkey in the west, to the
Caucasus (
Armenia,
Azerbaijan), and south through
Iraq,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Lebanon and
Israel to
Jordan and
Iran. It has also been recorded from the
Greek island
Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.
The largest Greek island by a ...
of
Kos, although it has not been seen there for more than a decade.
The records of ''M. tristrami'' from Kos are the only reports of a gerbil from a European country (excluding the former
Soviet Union), or from an island in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea.
Fossil evidence, however, shows that it has lived in the southern
Levant for at least 160,000 years.
It lives in
semi-desert
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
s and
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
s, and is supposedly limited to areas receiving an annual total
precipitation of at least . It feeds on various
seeds and
leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
, but although it lives in
burrow
An Eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of sh ...
s, it does not store any food there.
Taxonomy
''Meriones tristrami'' was
first described by
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 ...
in 1892.
He based his description on
type material
In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...
from the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
region of Israel collected by "Canon H. B. Tristram" (
Henry Baker Tristram), who is commemorated in the
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
'.
It is classified in the subgenus ''
Pallasiomys'' of the gerbil genus ''
Meriones'', and its members have sometimes been included within the species ''
Meriones shawi''.
A number of
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
have been described within ''M. tristrami'', but the genetic differences between them are slight,
and no subspecies are recognised in ''
Mammal Species of the World''.
Conservation
''Meriones tristrami'' has a wide
geographical range, including many
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
s, and has no serious threats. It is therefore listed as being of ''
Least Concern'' on the
IUCN Red List.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q739098
Meriones (rodent)
Mammals of Western Asia
Mammals described in 1892
Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot