Small five-toed jerboa
Allactaga elater
Ralph Martin · Kurshim District
Key facts in one look
- Size
- Body 9–12 cm, tail 14–19 cm, 32–77 g
- Diet
- Seeds, green plant parts, insects
- Status in Georgia
- Native, little known
- Habitat
- Semi-desert, dry valleys
- Family
- Dipodidae
- Conservation
- LC / DD
The small five-toed jerboa is a small rodent that hops on its hind legs like a kangaroo, covering up to 2 m in a single leap. Its tail is much longer than its body and ends in a black-and-white tuft. In Georgia it lives in the southeast: in the Iori and Eldari valleys, the Chatma valley and near Lake Jandari. It is active at night, so it is almost never seen by day. Very little is known about it in Georgia, so every photo counts.
Identification
Small five-toed jerboa: how to identify it
A small rodent with short front legs, very long hind legs, large ears and a long tail ending in a flat black-and-white tuft. The back is sandy grey, the flanks and belly pure white. In Georgia it is most easily confused with Williams's jerboa, which is larger.
The body is 9–12 cm long, the tail 14–19 cm, the ear 2.8–4.1 cm and the hind foot 4.3–5.8 cm. It weighs 32–77 g, and males and females are almost the same size.
The head and back range from clay grey to sandy grey, tinged yellowish, pinkish or ochre. The flanks and belly are pure white, with a white stripe on the hip. The tail tuft has three colours: a short white or yellowish ring, a black section 2–3.5 cm long and a white tip 1.5–2 cm long.
Williams's jerboa is larger, 54–143 g, with a brownish-ochre back, and the undersides of its hind toes are covered with soft white hair. The small five-toed jerboa has naked hind toes below. That feature shows only in the hand, so compare size, colour and the tail tuft on a photo instead.
Colour
Swatches are illustrative. Do not identify a species by colour alone.
Often confused with
It is an animal of desert and semi-desert. It avoids both completely bare, shrubless ground and very dense vegetation. It does not live in sand, though it crosses sandy areas and occupies small patches of firm soil among them. It also occurs in disturbed places and on the edges of farmland. In Georgia it has been found in the Iori, Eldari and Chatma valleys and near Lake Jandari, and in September 2017 it was photographed on the Iori Plateau.
It eats seeds and the green parts of plants, in roughly equal amounts in the southern part of its range. Insects and underground plant parts are a steady but small part of the diet. In early spring and late summer it eats mostly green parts, and in late spring, early summer and autumn mostly seeds. In any one place its food includes 21–58 species of shrubs, grasses and herbs.
It is active at dusk and at night, emerging 15–25 minutes after sunset. In spring and summer it is active all night, in autumn mostly in the first half of the night. In Central Asia it hibernates for 2.5–4.5 months, but in the South Caucasus no hibernation has been recorded, only lower activity in winter. Moving slowly, it steps with alternate hind feet; running fast, it bounds in leaps of up to 202 cm at up to 8.3 m/s. When threatened it runs off in zigzags, jumps straight up and hides under a shrub. The summer burrow is simple, 45–300 cm long, with the nest chamber usually 40–70 cm deep and the entrance plugged with soil. In the South Caucasus it starts breeding in February, with peaks in April and in August–September. Gestation lasts 20–21 days, and a litter has 1–9 young. A female has 2–3 litters a year and nurses the young for 35–40 days. Young born in spring mature in autumn, at 2.5–3.5 months.
Globally the small five-toed jerboa is rated Least Concern (LC, 2016): it faces no serious threats and lives in many protected areas. In Georgia the 2021 national assessment rates it Data Deficient (DD), with an unknown population trend. It is not on the Red List of Georgia. New observations are needed to judge its status in the country.
Related guides
Continue with related pages
In the southeast: in the Iori, Eldari and Chatma valleys and near Lake Jandari. In September 2017 it was photographed on the Iori Plateau.
It has large ears and long hind legs and moves in leaps, which makes it look like a hare. In fact it is a rodent of the jerboa family. Russian gives this genus a similar name.
The small five-toed jerboa is smaller, 32–77 g, with a sandy-grey back and naked hind toes below. Williams's jerboa weighs up to 143 g, has a brownish-ochre back, and its hind toes are covered with white hair below. Both have been found in the Eldari valley, so compare size and colour on a photo.
Not globally: it is Least Concern (LC, 2016). In Georgia the 2021 assessment rates it Data Deficient (DD), and its population trend is unknown. That makes every observation in the country valuable.
References
What this profile is based on
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
Prepared by the Reptiles.ge editorial team from the sources listed here.
