The bushveld gerbil (''Gerbilliscus leucogaster'') is a species of
rodent found in
Angola,
Botswana,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Kenya,
Malawi,
Mozambique,
Namibia,
South Africa,
Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
,
Tanzania,
Uganda,
Zambia, and
Zimbabwe. Its natural
habitats are dry
savanna, subtropical or tropical dry
shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...
, subtropical or tropical dry lowland
grassland, and hot
desert
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
s. Older sources classify it in the genus ''
Tatera
The Indian gerbil (''Tatera indica'') also known as antelope rat, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.
It is found in southern Asia from Syria to Bangladesh.
It is the only species in the genus ''Tatera''. Members of the genus ''Ger ...
''.
The bushveld gerbil is classified as a
granivorous
Seed predation, often referred to as granivory, is a type of plant-animal interaction in which granivores (seed predators) feed on the seeds of plants as a main or exclusive food source,Hulme, P.E. and Benkman, C.W. (2002) "Granivory", pp. 132 ...
insectivore
A robber fly eating a hoverfly
An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects.
The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...
, but it will feed on herbage if its preferred foods are unavailable, and it commonly does so in the dry season. Breeding occurs in the wet season (September to April), with its timing dependent on the amount of rainfall. Mean litter size is between four and five.
[Perrin, M. R., & Swanepoel, P. (1987), Breeding biology of the bushveld gerbil ''Tatera leucogaster'' in relation to diet, rainfall and life history theory. ''South African Journal of Zoology'', 22(3), 218-207]
/ref>
References
*
*Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wipussylson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Gerbilliscus
Mammals described in 1852
Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Gerbillinae-stub