Meriones unguiculatus

The long-clawed gerbil is a small grassland animal, between the size of a large rat and a small rat, a small to medium-sized rodent, and its appearance is very similar to that of the meridian gerbil. It belongs to the subfamily Gerbillinae. The species-level classification status is stable, and only the nominate subspecies is distributed in China. It is a common species in desert oases. It lives in desert Haloxylon ammodendron forests and Tamarix forests, and the population density is very high. It is active during the day.

The long-clawed gerbil is a non-hibernating animal. It mainly moves out of its cave during the day. In summer, it is most active between 7 and 10 a.m. and 17 and 21 p.m. It hides in caves at noon and mainly moves out of its caves between 10 and 15 a.m. in winter. As the temperature rises, its time to move out of its caves is advanced accordingly.

The long-clawed gerbil mainly eats seeds, leaves and stems of herbaceous plants. Its diet is relatively complex. It has been found to eat lizards in the wild. In addition, whether it is kept indoors or observed in caves in the wild, it can be confirmed that they cannibalize each other, and incomplete mouse corpses that have been eaten have been seen many times in the caves.

The long-clawed gerbil family lives in groups, and each family has 2-17 individuals, including several adult males and females, as well as subadults and juveniles. Each family has an underground cave system, which is a place for them to live, reproduce, store food, etc. It is also a place to protect themselves from cold, wind and rain, and natural enemies. There are two types of caves, namely temporary caves and living caves. In spring, due to the rot of nest grass and stored food, their activity increases, and they often temporarily abandon the winter caves and build new temporary caves. In summer, the cave nests are shallower from the ground and the tunnels are shorter. After autumn, the original caves are renovated and reused.

The sexual maturity period of the long-clawed gerbil is 10-12 weeks, and the sexual cycle is 4-6 days. Reproduction is mainly in spring and autumn, and there is basically no reproduction in December and January every year. Newborn mice grow and develop rapidly, and female mice usually mate at 5-6 months. Mating mostly occurs in the evening and at night, the mating period is 1 day, the gestation period is 24-26 days, and the lactation period is 21 days. Adult female mice can reproduce 3-4 litters a year, with 5-6 litters per litter and a maximum of 12. Under artificial breeding conditions, 5-8 litters can be reproduced in a year, the reproductive period of a lifetime is 7-20 months, the maximum number of litters is 14, and the lifespan is 2-4 years.

The long-clawed gerbil not only has no economic value, but is also a species that causes serious harm. It eats grass, digs holes and steals soil, destroys grassland vegetation, reduces the carrying capacity, and harms animal husbandry production. It seriously affects the renewal of grassland vegetation and the reproduction of grass, and causes grassland vegetation degradation and large-scale desertification. It steals food and destroys crops. It chews on tree bark and roots, steals seeds from sown trees, and is an important pest in artificial forests in agricultural and semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas.

Relationship with epidemic diseases: The long-clawed gerbil spreads many diseases. It is the main reservoir host of the long-clawed gerbil plague source in the Inner Mongolia Plateau of China. In addition, the long-clawed gerbil is more sensitive to filariasis and can be used as an ideal experimental animal for studying periodic filariasis.

This species is listed in the 2013 Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) ver3.1--Vulnerable (VU).

It has been included in the "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Economic and Scientific Research Value under State Protection" issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000.

In China, it is distributed in Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. Abroad, it is distributed in Mongolia and Russia.

The long-clawed gerbil is a small to medium-sized desert grassland animal. It likes to live in desert grasslands with soft sandy soil, semi-fixed sand dunes, forest farmland, canal backs, ridges, etc. It usually lives along valleys, slopes, both sides of roads where plants grow well, or in many independent small pieces of sandy and semi-sandy land.

Individuals are similar to the Meriones meridianus, with an average body length of about 110mm. The tail length is also slightly shorter than the body length, averaging about 98mm. The difference between the Meriones meridianus and the Meriones meridianus is that the base of the hair on the abdomen of the Long-clawed Gerbil is gray, the hair tips are white, and the claws are black and longer; while the Meriones meridianus has white fur on the ventral side and yellow-white claws. Like the Meriones meridianus, the soles of the feet are hairy and there are no exposed areas. In terms of fur color, the back of the Long-clawed Gerbil is yellow-brown with black needle hairs, and the area around the eyes is yellow-white. The tail is obviously two-colored, gray-brown on the back, pale on the ventral side, and has a black hair tuft at the end of the tail. The teeth are no different from those of other members of the genus Gerbil.