Jerboa sp, Bab al Shams, 06.07.10

[MarkS]

Spent an hour cruising the desert near the BT Lark site after dark. Flushed about 15 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, but found 2 small mammal species.

First mouse-like, with warm sandy-brown fur, tending towards gingerish on the face. Tail at least as long as the body. Long lower back legs, but favoured running or leaping on all fours, rather than hopping. Saw 3 of these. Cheeseman's Gerbil, I think.

Second species was a typical "kangaroo mouse", with long white-tipped tail and hopping gait.See poor-quality video grab:

57665767
Lesser Jerboa ?

Watch Speilberg's latest offering here...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7XgSodecIs

[ajmal]

Hi Mark, def. looks lesser jerboa to me, esp. looking at the large hind legs on the video. Can I ask about what time was this?

Regards,

[MarkS]

Thanks Ajmal,

I only spent about an hour driving round in a pretty small area, as I didn't want to get lost - so it would be about 9pm. Visiting the DDCR last week and seeing large numbers of tracks in the sand got me thinking about what I was missing by being diurnal, so I just went exploring. Really chuffed to find a jerboa - seeing this thing bound away up and over a dune in the headlights was pretty special.