Post #13770

Long-eared jerboa: Miracle from Mongolia. Predatory rodent with giant ears Hey, jerboa, why do you have such huge ears? What about the paws? What about the teeth? Wait, wait... What are you doing?! Leave this unfortunate grasshopper, you are a herbivore, a rodent after all! What do you mean no?! And that’s what it means, friends. Meet the long-eared jerboa, the most atypical representative of the rodent order. By the will of fate and evolution, he became so different from his relatives that he was included in the list of “100 animals that you must see before you die.” These are like wonders of the world, only made of wool. Look here: a tiny fluffy carcass the size of half a palm. On one side, a giant 15-centimeter thin tail-whip sticks out of it, and on the other, disproportionately huge ears. So that you understand: the body length of the jerboa is 9 centimeters, and the length of the ears is up to 6! And this whole strange structure rests on thin legs, like those of a kangaroo. Definitely, the animal is worth seeing in person at least once! To do this, go to China or Mongolia and wander into the desert. Of course, you won’t need 40 years, but you will have to wander for a long time. The jerboa spends most of the day in its hole, escaping the sizzling heat. But trying to dig an animal out of its shelter is useless. While we are gnawing out the best interest rate on the mortgage, our hero is gnawing out living space in the rocky desert soil with his teeth. But the jumper owns several minks at once. Some holes are transshipment holes, in case of a sudden attack by a predator. There the rodent awaits danger if it senses that it is being hunted. The second ones are larger - for daytime sleep. Still others are very large and deep, with underground rooms. This is for a comfortable time with the cubs and for hibernation. Moreover, each shelter is equipped with a back exit. In the event of a rogue, the animal will come out through the emergency hole and jump into the sunset. Therefore, it is best to look for the jerboa in the evening, closer to night. After sunset, the rodents get out of the bunker and make a walk around, or rather, jump around their territory. At the same time, the prey of the long-eared jerboa crawls onto the surface of the cooled sand, which means this is the ideal time for hunting! Yes, while other types of jerboas chew exclusively bark, twigs and skinny leaves of desert vegetation, our hero has changed his food orientation by 180°. He has become a predator! Its menu includes small insects and wasteland spiders. For rodents in general and jerboas in particular, this feature is, to put it mildly, not typical. Giant ears help the rodent find sand-scraping insects in pitch darkness. With them, the jerboa picks up danger signals - the jerboa itself is also an easy prey. True, almost no one catches him. Chasing through the desert after a shrewd little thing weighing 30 grams, most of which is on long bony legs and ea