The thick-tailed three-toed jerboa (''Stylodipus telum'') 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

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Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, and

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

. Its typical habitat is steppe, desert and mountain grassland where it is often found among

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

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 ...

'' in sandy or clayey soils.

Description

The thick-tailed three-toed jerboa grows to a length of with a tail as long again and a weight of . The crown of the head is dark-coloured but the rest of the coat is pale greyish-yellow with many longer guard hairs with blackish tips. A white band stretches across the hips and the flanks are straw-coloured with dark flecks.

Behaviour

The thick-tailed three-toed jerboa is nocturnal and is a solitary animal. It lives in a complex burrow system that may extend for two and a half metres, with many entrances each loosely blocked with a plug of soil. It also has shallow burrows within its home range which may be used by more than one individual and into which it can retreat. It feeds on green parts of plants, bulbs and seeds but does not store food for the winter. Females usually have two litters per year, each consisting of two to four young, one in spring and the other in autumn.

Status

The thick-tailed three-toed jerboa has a wide range and presumed large total population. The main threat it faces is conversion of the steppe to agricultural use. Its population size is believed to be in slow decline but 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=Q1762756 Stylodipus Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Mammals described in 1823