Andrews's three-toed jerboa, or the Mongolian jerboa, (''Stylodipus andrewsi'') 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

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Ningxia provinces) and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

Description

Andrews's three-toed jerboa grows to a length of with a tail rather longer than its body and a weight of about . The crown of the head is grey with white spots above the eye and another behind the ear. The rest of the coat is buffish grey. A white band stretches across the hips and the underparts are white. The central toe on the hind foot is the longest and the sole of the foot is haired. The tail is thickened by the adipose tissue beneath the skin and has a flattened, terminal, black bushy section. It can be distinguished from the rather similar

thick-tailed three-toed jerboa The thick-tailed three-toed jerboa (''Stylodipus telum'') is a species of rodent in the family Dipodidae. It is found in China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Its typical habitat is steppe, desert and mountain grassla ...

(''Stylodipus telum'') by the fact that it has premolars in the upper jaw, these being vestigial in ''S. telum''.

Behaviour

Andrews's three-toed jerboa is nocturnal and is a solitary animal. It inhabits semi-arid and arid steppes and grassland, as well as sand dunes with scrubby vegetation. It is also found in coniferous and mixed forests with undergrowth. It feeds on green parts of plants, roots and seeds. Females usually have a single litter consisting of two to four young in the year.

Status

Andrews's three-toed jerboa has a wide range and presumed large total population and occurs in a number of protected areas. No particular threats to this species have been identified and Its population trend is unknown. 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=Q1764121 Stylodipus Rodents of China Mammals of Mongolia Mammals described in 1925 Taxa named by Glover Morrill Allen Taxonomy articles created by Polbot