| Dahl's jird | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Muridae |
| Genus: | Meriones |
| Species: | M. dahli |
| Binomial name | |
| Meriones dahli Shidlovsky, 1962 | |
Dahl's jird (Meriones dahli) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Armenia and the neighboring Agri province of Turkey.
Gerbillinae is one of the subfamilies of the rodent family Muridae and includes the gerbils, jirds, and sand rats. Once known as desert rats, the 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.
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 Arabian jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Cheng's jird is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. 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.
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.
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 rodent 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.
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