Namib brush-tailed gerbil

The Namib brush-tailed gerbil, also called Setzer's hairy-footed gerbil (Gerbillurus setzeri), is a rodent endemic to southwestern Angola and northwestern and western Namibia, where it lives in a strip of land running parallel to the coast. It is the largest species of its genus, with a head and body of about 110 mm and a tail of around 130 mm that ends in a long tuft of grey hairs. The back is pale sandy brown, while the face, chin, throat, underparts, legs and feet are white, and the soles of the feet are densely haired. It lives on sandy and gravelly plains, sand flats, bare gravel plains and dried riverbeds, and may move into nearby dunes when numbers rise. It spends the day in a branching burrow of up to about 2 m, emerges at night to feed on arthropods, plant material and seeds, and does not need to drink. It is common, largely protected, and assessed as Least Concern.