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

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

in the subfamily Gerbillinae of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are either the largest or second-largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 870 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. ...

. It is distributed mainly in

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

to southwestern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. 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 Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for ...

in 1919. It was named in honour of its discoverer, the British military officer, explorer and ornithologist Robert Ernest Cheesman who collected it while on an exploratory expedition in Saudi Arabia.

Description

This gerbil is similar in appearance to the lesser Egyptian gerbil (''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 A fur is a soft, thick growth of hair that covers the skin of almost all 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 ...

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

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

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'' and '' Artemisia'' 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.

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) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

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