Dipus sagitta Pallas 1773
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
Dipus
Dipus sagitta

description: 26.
Northern Three-toed Jerboa
Dipus sagitta
French: Gerboise a pattes rugueuses / German: Rauful 3-Springmaus / Spanish: Jerbo tridéctilo septentrrional
Other common names: Hairy-footed Jerboa, Rough-legged Jerboa
Taxonomy. Mus sagitta Pallas, 1773,
Yamyshevskaya, Pavlodar Region, N Kazakhstan.
Genetic data provide strong evidence that D. sagitta is not a single species but rather a complex of cryptic species; however, descriptions and distributions of these species are not yet clear. Sixteen subspecies recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution.
pos sagitta Pallas, 1773 — S Russia (Altai Krai) and right bank of Irtysh River in Kazakhstan (Pavlodar and East Kazakhstan regions).
D.s.aksuensisWangSung,1964—NWChina(NTarimBasininXinjiang).
D.s.austrouralensisShenbrot,1991—NWKazakhstan(WestKazakhstan,Atyrau,andAktoberegionsbetweenUralandEmbarivers).
D.s.bulganensisShenbrot,1991—EKazakhstan(ELakeZaysaninEastKazakhstanRegion),NWChina(DzungarianBasininXinjiang),andMongolia(SKhovdandSWGovi-Altai).
D.s.deasyiBarret-Hamilton,1900—NWChina(STarimBasininXinjiangandS&WQaidamBasininQinghai).
D. s. fuscocanus Wang Sung, 1964 — W China (S foothills of E Tian Shan in Xinjiang).
D. s. halli Sowerby, 1920 — China (NE Inner Mongolia [= Nei Mongol], SW Heilongjiang, NWJilin, and N Liaoning) and SE Mongolia (Stikhbaatar).
D. s. innae Ognev, 1930 — S Russia (Astrakhan Region E of Volga River) and NW Kazakhstan (West Kazakhstan and Atyrau regions W of Ural River).
D.s. lagopus Lichtenstein, 1823 — WC Kazakhstan (E of Emba and N of Syrdarya rivers).
D. s. megacranius Shenbrot, 1991 — SE Kazakhstan (Moinkum Sands in Jambyl Region).
D. s. nogai Satunin, 1907 — S European Russia (Volgograd and Astrakhan regions E of Volga River, Kalmykia, and Dagestan).
D. s. sowerbyi Thomas, 1908 — N China (NE Xinjiang, N Qaidam Basin in Qinghai, Gansu, SW Inner Mongolia, N Ningxia, and N Shaanxi) and Mongolia.
D. s. turanicus Shenbrot, 1991 — SW Kazakhstan (S Kyzylorda S of Syrdarya River and Mangystau regions), Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan;it probably occurs in adjacent W Afghanistan.
D. s. ubsanensis Bannikov, 1947 — NW Mongolia (N Uvs) and adjacent Russia (extreme S Tuva).
D. s. usuni Shenbrot, 1991 — SE Kazakhstan (Almaty Region); it probably occurs in adjacent China (sands of Ili Valley of W Xinjiang).
D. s. zaissanensis Selevin, 1934 — E Kazakhstan (NW Lake Zaysan Basin on the left bank of Irtysh River).
Isolated population in N Iran (Turan Desert in E Semnan Province) may belong to turanicus or correspond to a yet undescribed subspecies.
Descriptive notes. Head-body 115-145 mm, tail 140-180 mm, ear 16-23 mm, hindfoot 57-67 mm; weight 46-128 g. There is no significant secondary sexual dimorphism. Condylo-basal lengths of skulls are 29-34-3 mm, mastoid breadths are 18-9-23-5 mm, and maxillary tooth row lengths are 5-1-6-8 mm. Head and dorsum vary geographically from light sandy yellow to dark grayish brown; sides and ventral pelage are pure white; and tail banner is flattened, without white basal ring but with long black subterminal field and relatively short white terminal tuft. Toes of hindfeet are covered from below with brushes of relatively long, firm, and straight white (in western part of the distribution) or dark brown (in eastern part of distribution) hairs; toes do not have conic calluses at bases. Auditory bullae are moderately inflated and not projecting from under braincase. Mastoid cavity is small and not subdivided into sections. In volume, mastoid cavity is about three times smaller than tympanic cavity. Front surfaces of incisors are orange-yellow. P' is present and c.2-5 times smaller in diameter than M?. Lower premolars are present in very few individuals. Molars are low-crowned, with tuberculous surfaces; crown heights of unworn molars is ¢.90% oftheir lengths. Glans penis is massive, cylindrical, 7-10-3 mm long and 3-8-5-9 mm wide, slightly compressed dorso-ventrally, and subdivided by deep longitudinalfolds into two ventrolateral and one dorsal lobe, with shallow longitudinal depressions each; dorsal lobe has pair of styletshape forward directed thorns rooted in middle of lobe; anterior part of surface of dorsal lobe is covered by single-vertex, backward-directed aciculae increasing in size in backward direction; posterior part of surface of dorsal lobe and all surfaces of ventro-lateral lobes are covered by flat, backward-directed, comb-like scales. Os penis (baculum) is large (its length about equal to length of glans penis), straight or slightly curved in vertical plane, with small proximal plate situated 40-60° to the horizontal plane, small flat horizontal broadenings at distal end, and high and wide triangle vertical ridge. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 48 and FN = 94-96.
Habitat. In western and north-eastern parts of the distribution, sand massifs at different stages of sand stabilization (from moving non-stabilized sands to pine forests on sand dunes) in desert, semi-desert, and steppe zones but always with patches of pure sand without grass or forb vegetation; in the south-eastern distribution, sands, sandygravel, and gravel plains in desert zones; in the western distribution (southern European Russia to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan), lowlands at elevations of 28-978 m but in eastern part (south-eastern Kazakhstan, Russian Tuva, Mongolia, China), at elevations of ¢.3176 m in the Qaidam Basin and Pamir Mountains.
Food and Feeding. Diets of Northern Three-toed Jerboas contain seeds and flowers (36-73%, average 51%), green plant material (16-54%, average 35%), roots and bulbs (0-40%, average 10%), and insects (1-11%, average 4%). They feed on various plants depending on location and season; local lists include 15-40 species of shrubs, grasses, and forbs.
Breeding. Breeding patterns of Northern Three-toed Jerboas vary geographically. In western part of the distribution, breeding usually has two peaks, in spring/early summer and late summer/early autumn, with a mid-summer interruption. In eastern part of the distribution, breeding has one mid-summer peak. Litters have 1-8 young (average range 3-1-4-5). Overwintering females have 2-3 litters/year. Yearlings born in spring are sexually mature by the next autumn (at the age of c¢.3 months), but their participation in breeding is usually low. Gestation has been estimated at 25-30 or 35 days. Young nurse for c.40 days.
Activity patterns. The Northern Three-toed Jerboa is crepuscular and nocturnal. Aboveground activity starts at sunset in summer and 20-90 minutes after sunset in spring and autumn. Spring and summeractivity lasts 7-9 hours and endsat sunrise; in autumn, individuals are active only during the first one-half of the night, and length of activity can decrease to one hour. Hibernation in Russian Dagestan and Kazakhstan lasts 4-5 months from end of October to mid-March. In Uzbekistan, hibernation was observed at ambient temperatures below 10-15°C and lasted 36-60 days, with interruptions during thaws. In southern Turkmenistan, hibernations of 30-45 days were observed only in two of eleven winters.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Average movements of Northern Three-toed Jerboas are 450-600 m/h in the first one-half of the night and up to 1300 m/h in the second; maximum recorded speed is 8-1 m/s. Total lengths of onenight movements are 1-2 km for females and 4-8 km (but up to 11 km) for males and subadults. In relatively more productive habitats, home ranges are subdivided into two functional parts: core (living burrows and foraging area) and peripheral (area of remote searching visits). In less productive habitats, all home range area is used with equal intensity. Home range size varies geographically and with habitat productivity from 4 ha to 19-22 ha in males and from 2-9 ha to 12-15 ha in females. At low and moderate densities, home ranges of females are isolated, but home ranges of males overlap those of other males and females. At high densities, all home ranges widely overlap, regardless of sex. Interactions of individuals in the wild can be amicable or slightly agonistic; in the latter case, individuals produced sniffing sounds, made high verticaljumps (up to 1 m height), and ran away. When young individuals first exit their mother’s burrow and for some days after, they move together connected like a “train”: the first young holds its mother’s tail at the base, the second young holds the tail of the first, and so on. The same order is retained when returning to the mother’s burrow. Burrows are simple and have one main entrance, one emergency entrance (dug up from the inside to 5-7 cm below the ground’s surface), and one nest chamber 5-7 cm in diameter at depths of 35-110 cm; total lengths of tunnels are 50-400 cm. Main entrance in spring and summer usually is closed with sand plug, butit often remains open in autumn. Female breeding burrows are slightly more complicated than living burrows; they have up to three emergency exits and 1-3 additional chambers, with tunnel lengths of 440-690 cm and depths of 35-180 cm. In the northern part of the distribution, where hibernation is regular and long, winter burrows are simple and consist of one tunnel with nest chamber at the end; tunnel lengths are 240-300 cm, and depths of nest chambers are 80-190 cm. In the southern part of the distribution, where hibernation is irregular and short, winter burrows have several tunnels and up to five chambers at different depths along the main tunnel; tunnel lengths are 600-1000 cm, and depths of deepest nest chambers are 76-290 cm.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List.
Bibliography. Shenbrot et al. (2008), Sokolov et al. (1996), Zhang Yongzu et al. (1997).
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 page 96, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6591722