Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus can be found in cen­tral Asia, North Africa and Ara­bia in coun­tries such as Sudan, Is­rael, and Mo­rocco. The species is es­pe­cially com­mon in Egypt, where it gets its com­mon name, Lesser Egypt­ian Jer­boa. (Brown ET AL., 1994; "Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1997)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus lives in desert and semi-desert areas that can be sandy or stony. They can also be found in less num­bers in rocky val­leys and mead­ows. ("Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1997)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus is the small­est species in the genus Jac­u­lus. It is very small with a dark­ish back and lighter col­ored un­der­belly. There is also a light-col­ored stripe across its hip. Jer­boas are a lot like a tiny kan­ga­roo in lo­co­mo­tion and pos­ture. The hind feet are in­cred­i­bly large, 50 to 75 mm, and used for jump­ing. Each hind foot has three toes. The tail is very long, 128 to 250 mm, with a clump of hairs at the tip which is used for bal­ance. It has mod­er­ately large eyes and ears. Fe­males are larger than males. ("BBC - Na­ture Wild­facts", 2002; "Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1997)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range mass

  43 to 73 g

  1.52 to 2.57 oz

• Average mass

  55 g

  1.94 oz

• Range length

  95 to 110 mm

  3.74 to 4.33 in

• Average length

  100 mm

  3.94 in

• Average basal metabolic rate

  0.515 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Not much is known about the mat­ing sys­tem of J. jac­u­lus be­cause they are soli­tary and noc­tur­nal. How­ever, it ap­pears as though a male will mate with any num­ber of fe­males he comes across, while a fe­male will mate with only one male.

• Mating System
• polygynous

A male jer­boa at­tracts a mate by stand­ing on his hind legs in front of a fe­male. When the fe­male ap­proaches, he faces her and slaps her at reg­u­lar in­ter­vals with his short front limbs. Lesser Egypt­ian jer­boas breed at least twice yearly, and every three months in cap­tiv­ity. Breed­ing oc­curs from June to July and from Oc­to­ber to De­cem­ber. Fe­males have an av­er­age of 3 young per lit­ter. Young reach in­de­pen­dence at 8 to 10 weeks, and be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture at 8 to 12 months. ("BBC - Na­ture Wild­facts", 2002; Hap­pold, 1967)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Lesser Egyptian jerboas breed at least twice yearly, and every three months in captivity.

• Breeding season

  Breeding occurs from June to July and from October to December.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 6

• Average number of offspring

  3

• Average number of offspring

  3

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  25 days

• Average gestation period

  45 days

  AnAge

• Average weaning age

  6 weeks

• Range time to independence

  8 (low) weeks

• Average time to independence

  10 weeks

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  8 to 12 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  137 days

  AnAge

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus bred in cap­tiv­ity do not sur­vive. The mother will not touch the pups after they are born. In one case, the mother kicked the ba­bies out of the nest. In the wild, how­ever, the ba­bies and the fe­male are brought into close con­tact in the bur­row. At birth, the pups are hair­less and tiny with a head and body around 25 mm, tail around 16 mm. They weigh about 2 g and their hind feet are much shorter in pro­por­tion to adults at around 9 mm. Their eyes are closed over, but they can crawl around using their front limbs. The young will not leave the bur­row until they are able to be self-suf­fi­cient at around 8 weeks of age. (Hap­pold, 1967)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus can­not be bred in cap­tiv­ity due to lack of ma­ter­nal care. How­ever, cap­tured young jer­boas have been suc­cess­fully tamed and kept as pets. These tame jer­boas can live up to 6 years. The old­est jer­boa found in the wild was 4 years old. ("BBC - Na­ture Wild­facts", 2002; "UAE IN­TER­ACT", 2000; Hap­pold, 1967)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  3 to 4 years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  5 to 6.4 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  2 to 3 years

Be­hav­ior

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus moves around only at night when it is cooler in the desert. They are soli­tary crea­tures that dig bur­rows in the sand in a coun­ter­clock­wise spi­ral. The bur­rows are dug in hard ground and go to a depth of around 1.2 me­ters. There are a cou­ple of ad­di­tional exits off of the main bur­row, and the nest is at the very bot­tom. Jer­boas move by hop­ping along the ter­rain with their huge hind legs. One leap can be sev­eral me­ters in length. They have a molt­ing sea­son from March to July. An in­ter­est­ing thing about these an­i­mals is their ac­tiv­ity of sand­bathing. They make a shal­low hol­low in the sand by dig­ging it out, then lay in it and rub their bod­ies along the sides. Dur­ing hot spells and dry pe­ri­ods, J. jac­u­lus aes­ti­vates in its bur­row. It has been de­bated that J. jac­u­lus hi­ber­nates in the win­ter, but only a few in­di­vid­u­als have been known to do so. ("UAE IN­TER­ACT", 2000; Hap­pold, 1967; "Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1997)

• Key Behaviors
• fossorial
• saltatorial
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• hibernation
• aestivation
• solitary

• Range territory size

  10 to 14 km^2

Home Range

Jer­boas leave their bur­row after sun­down and can travel long dis­tances, about 10 km, away from it in search of food. They can cover a lot of ground quickly be­cause of their huge feet and hop­ping stride. ("Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1997)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Be­cause J. jac­u­lus is soli­tary, not much is known about how in­di­vid­u­als com­mu­ni­cate with one an­other. An­i­mals in cap­tiv­ity seem to rec­og­nize each other by smell. They close their eyes and come to­gether until thier noses touch and keep con­tact for 1 to 5 sec­onds in this way. (Hap­pold, 1967)

• Communication Channels
• tactile
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• vibrations
• chemical

Food Habits

Al­though lesser Egypt­ian jer­boas lives in the desert, they do not drink, de­pend­ing on the greens and in­sects that they eat to pro­vide enough water and mois­ture. Their diet con­sists of roots, grass, seeds, grains, with some in­sects. (Hap­pold, 1967; "Walker's Mam­mals of the World", 1997)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • granivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• roots and tubers
• seeds, grains, and nuts

Pre­da­tion

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus is very fast when hop­ping and es­cape seems to be its de­fense against preda­tors. In­di­vid­u­als often run down into their bur­rows to get away as well. They do not bite often when han­dled, so they do not have any real means of de­fense against preda­tors when caught. The preda­tors of this species are desert car­ni­vores in­clud­ing pal­lid foxes (Vulpes pal­l­ida), Nile foxes (Vulpes vulpes), striped weasels (Ictonyx stria­tus), saw-scaled vipers (Echis car­i­na­tus), and moila snakes (Malpolon moilen­sis). Some hu­mans eat jer­boas as well. (Hap­pold, 1967)

• Known Predators

  • pallid foxes (Vulpes pallida)
  • Nile foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
  • moila snakes (Malpolon moilensis)
  • striped weasels (Ictonyx striatus)
  • saw-scaled vipers (Echis carinatus)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus as prey pro­vides nour­ish­ment and water to other an­i­mals in the desert. It helps to dis­perse seeds in the desert. A va­cated jer­boa bur­row could be­come home to spi­ders and scor­pi­ons. Jer­boas are also homes them­selves for nu­mer­ous kinds of par­a­sites such as ticks, fleas, mites, lice. (Hap­pold, 1967)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds
• creates habitat

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Some hu­mans eat jer­boas for food. Jer­boas are be­com­ing pop­u­lar pets be­cause they are eas­ily tame­able and do not com­monly bite. (Hap­pold, 1967)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse af­fects of J. jac­u­lus on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

As of right now, this species is not on any con­ser­va­tion lists.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Matthew Wund (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Theresa Kee­ley (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

2002. "BBC - Na­ture Wild­facts" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 10, 2004 at http://​www.​bbc.​co.​uk/​nature/​wildfacts/​factfiles/​620.​shtml.

2000. "UAE IN­TER­ACT" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 10, 2004 at http://​uaeinteract.​com/​nature/​mammal/​mam17.​asp.

The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press. 1997. "Walker's Mam­mals of the World" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 10, 2004 at http://​www.​press.​jhu.​edu/​books/​walkers_​mammals_​of_​the_​world/​rodentia/​rodentia.​dipodidae.​jaculus.​html.

Brown ET AL., 1994. Co­ex­is­tence of Negev Desert Ro­dents. Ecol­ogy, 75: 2290-2297.

Hap­pold, D. 1967. Bi­ol­ogy of jer­boa, Jac­u­lus jac­u­lus but­leri (Ro­den­tia, Dipo­di­dae), in the Sudan. Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, Lon­don, 151: 257-274.