Allactaga major Kerr 1792
Creators: name: Don E. Wilson
name: Russell A. Mittermeier
name: Thomas E. Lacher, Jr
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Dipodidae
Allactaga
Allactaga major

description: 9.
Great Jerboa
Allactaga major
French: Grande Gerboise / German: GroRer Pferdespringer / Spanish: Jerbo grande
Taxonomy. Dipus sibiricus major Kerr, 1792,
Naurzum, Kostanay Region, Kazakhstan.
Three subspecies are recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution.
A.m.majorKerr,1792—fromUkraine(EofDnieperRiver)andSEuropeanRussiathroughKazakhstanandSpartofWSiberiatoNWUzbekistan(Karakalpakstan)andextremeNWChina(NWXinjiang).
A.m.djetysuensisShenbrot,1991—SEKazakhstan(Almaty,SJambylandSouthKazakhstanregions),NKyrgyzstan(ChuyandTalasregions),andUzbekistan(NTashkentRegion).
A. m. spiculum Lichtenstein, 1825 — between Irtysh and Obrivers in SE Western Siberia (E part of Omsk, Novosibirsk, and Altai regions of Russia) and NE Kazakhstan (E parts of Pavlodar and East Kazakhstan regions).
Descriptive notes. Head-body 187-230 mm,tail 250-305 mm, ear 48-62 mm, hindfoot 85-101 mm; weight 260-415 g. There is no significant secondary sexual dimorphism. Condylo-basal lengths of skulls are 40-1-46 mm, zygomatic breadths are 30-5— 36-2 mm, and maxillary tooth row lengths are 8:3-10 mm. Head and dorsum vary from dark brownish ocherousto light grayish sandy; sides and ventral pelage are pure white; and tail banner is wide and well flattened, bicolored, with about equally long black subterminal field (50-90 mm) and white terminal tuft (45-95 mm), without white stripe along tail rod on ventral side of black subterminal field. Toes of hindfeet are naked; conic calluses at bases of toes are large and high, with wide bases and rounded apexes. Auditory bullae are weakly inflated. Mastoid cavity is extremely small and not subdivided into sections; tympanic cavity is medium-sized. Front surfaces of incisors are white; incisors are moderately deflected forward. P! is relatively small, 1-7-1-9 times smaller in diameter than M®. Lower premolars are present in very few individuals. Molars are low-crowned, with terraced masticatory surfaces; crown heights of unworn molars are ¢.80% of their lengths. Glans penis is egg-shaped, 8-8-5 mm long and 5-5-6-5 mm wide,slightly compressed in dorsoventral direction, subdivided by deep longitudinal dorsal fold into two lateral lobes; surfaces of lobesare covered by single-vertex, backward-directed aciculae increasing in size in backward direction; and aciculae are arranged in 6-8 concentric rows with 10-15 aciculae in each row. Os penis (baculum) is absent. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 48 and FN = 96.
Habitat. Forest steppe, steppe, semi-desert, and desert. In forest steppe and steppe, the GreatJerboa selects open areas with sparse grass cover such as pastures, along sides of dirt roads, crop fields, shores of salt lakes, and high terraces ofriver valleys. In semidesert and desert,it can be found in almost all habitat types, except non-stabilized and semi-stabilized sands, preferring areas with sagebrush (Artemisia spp., Asteraceae) and succulent dwarf shrubs (Anabasis, Salsola, both Amaranthaceae) on light sandy, clay soils.
Food and Feeding. The Great Jerboa is omnivorous. It eats seeds, insects, and green and underground parts of plants in equal amounts.
Breeding. Breeding of the Great Jerboa occurs in March—August. Litters have 1-8 young (average range 3-5-9). Overwintering females can produce two litters per year. Sexual maturity occurs at 9-11 months of age, after overwintering. Gestation was estimated at 25 days.
Activity patterns. The Great Jerboa is nocturnal. Aboveground activity usually starts 40-45 minutes after sunset and ends 0-5—1-5 hours before sunrise, with peak activity near end of the first one-half of night. Hibernation lasts from as early as the end of September to April.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. When foraging, GreatJerboas move slowly, using bipedal pacing with alternating support by left and right hindfeet; lengths of steps are 16-19 cm. When running fast, they use asynchronous ricochet jumps. Lengths of jumps are 80-125 cm, and maximum speeds are 40-50 km/h. Escaping behavioris characterized by running fast for 60-100 m and then hiding in dense vegetation or a shelter burrow. Home ranges are 13-150 ha. Summer burrows usually have two main tunnels branching off the initial tunnel: one horizontal, starting from main entrance at the ground’s surface (often closed with soil plug) and leading to the end of the initial tunnel, and one sloping down, starting in the middle of the first main tunnel and ending after 1-2 right-angled turns at the bottom with nest chamber. Several (1-4) additional short tunnels start from the main horizontal tunnel and lead to emergency exits near the ground’s surface. The initial tunnel can be up to 6 m long; total lengths of main tunnels are 125-615 cm (usually 200-300 cm); nest chambers are 9-13 cm in diameter and 40-100 cm deep (usually 50-70 cm). Winter burrows have no initial tunnel or emergency exits but have two nest chambers, one at the bottom end of the sloping down tunnel and the second one in the middle of this tunnel; total lengths of tunnels of winter burrows are 310-500 cm, and maximum depths are 160-250 cm. Night shelter burrows are simple, with one tunnel 80-200 cm long, passing from surface to depths of 50-80 cm. One individual can have 2-6 shelter burrows in its home range. Entrance of shelter burrow is very obvious because a well-worn path usually leadsto it. In the wild, GreatJerboas are solitary, and interactions are rare. In captivity, adults are very aggressive and fight immediately; young are peaceful.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Great Jerboa was common in southern Ukraine, west of the Dnieper River, until the beginning of 20" century, but it is now absent there.
Bibliography. Anufriyev et al. (2003), Artaev et al. (2012), Astradamov (2005), Balashova et al. (2006), Bolshakov (2004), Bulakhov & Pakhomov (2006), Isaev (2010), Ivanchev (2001), Kiseleva et al. (2005), Konstantinov (2006), Korol'kov & Krivosheev (2008), Krasnova & Shekarova (2000), Mishta (2005), Negrobov (2011), Selyunina (2008), Shapovalov (2005), Shenbrot et al. (2008), Shlyakhtin et al. (2009), Sidorov & Rusakov (2005), Vlasov (2002), Vyshegorodskikh (2007), Yakovlev (2004), Zagorodnyuk & Korobchenko (2008), Zakharov & Korytin (2005).
description: Published as part of Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier & Thomas E. Lacher, Jr, 2017, Dipodidae, pp. 81-100 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 7 Rodents II, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 1-86, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6591722