| Cheng's jird | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Muridae |
| Genus: | Meriones |
| Species: | M. chengi |
| Binomial name | |
| Meriones chengi Wang, 1964 | |
Cheng's jird (Meriones chengi) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. [2] It was named in honour of the Chinese zoologist Professor Tso-hsin Cheng. It is found only in the Turpan Depression of eastern Xinjiang, China.
A gerbil is a small mammal of the subfamily Gerbillinae in the order Rodentia. Once known as desert rats, the gerbil subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and jirds, all of which are adapted to arid habitats. Most are primarily active during the day, making them diurnal, and almost all are omnivorous. Gerbils are related to mice and rats; they all belong to the family Muridae.
The Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Body size is typically 110–135mm, with a 95–120mm tail, and body weight 60–130g, with adult males larger than females. The animal is used in science and kept as a small house pet. Their use in science dates back to the latter half of the 19th century, but they only started to be kept as pets after 1954, when they were brought to the United States. However, their use in scientific research has fallen out of favor.
Ulmus changiiW. C. Cheng, occasionally known as the Hangzhou elm, is a small deciduous tree found across much of China in forests at elevations of up to 1800 m. Owing to its increasing scarcity, U. changii was added to the Hainan Province Protected Plants List in 2006.
Meriones is a rodent genus that includes the gerbil most commonly kept as a pet, Meriones unguiculatus. The genus contains most animals referred to as jirds, but members of the genera Sekeetamys, Brachiones, and sometimes Pachyuromys are also known as jirds. The distribution of Meriones ranges from northern Africa to Mongolia. Meriones jirds tend to inhabit arid regions including clay desert, sandy desert, and steppe, but are also in slightly wetter regions, and are an agricultural pest.
The Shansei vole is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found only in north-central China where its habitat is forests.
The Arabian jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Sundevall's jird is a species of rodent in the family of Muridae. It is found in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Pakistan, Morocco, Niger, Palestine, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Western Sahara, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and possibly Mali. Its natural habitat is hot deserts.
Dahl's jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Armenia and the neighboring Agri province of Turkey.
The Libyan jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Western China. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, intermittent saline lakes, hot deserts, and rural gardens.
The midday jird, or midday gerbil, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae and native to sandy deserts in Afghanistan, China, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. How this rodent received its common name is unclear as it is mainly nocturnal.
The Persian jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae found in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan.
The king jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Buxton's jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in the Negev desert and the northern coastal parts of the Sinai peninsula.
The tamarisk jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It prefers habitats with grass or shrub cover.
Meriones tristrami, known as Tristram's jird, is a species of gerbil that lives in the Middle East. It is named after the Reverend Henry Baker Tristram who collected the first specimens. It is up to 155 mm (6.1 in) long, and lives in burrows in steppes and semi-deserts from Turkey and the Caucasus to Israel and Iran. Records from the Greek island of Kos represent the only gerbils reported from Europe, outside the former Soviet Union. It is a common, widespread species, and is not considered to be threatened.
Vinogradov's jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
Zarudny's jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan.
The Moroccan jird is a species of rodent from the family Muridae. The species was first discovered by Ángel Cabrera in 1907. It is endemic to Morocco, northern Algeria, and Tunisia. It had been included as part of Shaw's jird, but was considered in 2000 to be a separate species.
The Sichuan bush warbler lives primarily in the thick brush and on tea plantations in five mountainous provinces of central China. It is a relatively small bird with a weight of 10 grams and an average length of 13 cm. Unlike its congener the russet bush warbler, which is found in the same mountains and also in the Himalayas, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia, the Sichuan bush warbler prefers elevations below 7,500 feet. The two species shared a common ancestor about 850,000 years ago. They are distinguished by plumage and sonogram terminology – their songs. Locustella chengi emits a long buzz, followed by a shorter click, often repeated in series, and the song is in a lower frequency than its genetic cousin.
Tso-hsin Cheng was a Chinese ornithologist known for his seminal work on the birds of China and mentoring a generation of researchers. Educated in the United States, he chose to stay in China after the Second World War though many of his academic colleagues moved to Taiwan. He was severely punished during the Cultural Revolution despite being a member of the Communist Party.
 | This Meriones article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
