Dunn's gerbil

Dunn's gerbil, Gerbillus dunni, is a rodent that lives mainly in the Horn of Africa, with a range that includes Eritrea, Djibouti, eastern Ethiopia, Somaliland and northern Somalia. It is an animal of dry grassland, dry savannah and bare or scantily vegetated rocky plains. The British zoologist Oldfield Thomas described it in 1904, and its karyotype is 2n=74. It is one of eight very similar gerbils of northeastern Africa and is distinguished from the others by the hairy soles of its hind feet, with a head and body length of about 98 mm, a tail of 135 mm and a mass of about 38 g. It is sometimes called the Somalia gerbil, a name not to be confused with the Somalian gerbil or the Somali gerbil. The IUCN rates it as least concern: it occupies a large area of suitable habitat, no particular threats have been identified and its population is believed to be steady.