The distant Gobi Desert, located between China and Mongolia, covers an area of 1.3 million square kilometers. For 2 million years, it has been dry and rainy all year round, and the sand has flown away. "The desert is lonely and straight, and the long river is full of sunsets" is not enough to describe its magnificence. In this vast desert, at first glance there is no life. But if you look closely, you'll see that there are a lot of elves that have lived in it for generations, and the long-eared jerboa is one of them.
The Gobi Desert against the blue sky and white clouds
The sun, moon and stars, the four seasons rotate, and the long-eared jerboa accompanies the quiet and lively sand dunes through one long time after another. During the day, the heat was unbearable, and the jerboa hid in the burrow to sleep. As the sun set, it stretched out and began a busy night.
Jerboa in the setting sun
01 Moving to a new home
The current home is dug under the sand and has been living for more than a month, and in the past month, the wind and sand have ravaged, the opening of the cave has collapsed several times, and it is often visited by wild cats, so it is imperative to move to a new home.
Three days ago, when the jerboa went to look for food, it found a dead wood 2800 meters south of the dunes, which resembled a plane tree, with a strong outer layer and hollow inside, digging out the sand below, which was a perfect and solid home.
The desert day was unusually hot, the temperature reached a terrifying 45 degrees, and as the sun set, the temperature dropped sharply to more than 20 degrees, just right to build a new home. The jerboa has shorter front legs and pointed and slender claws, making it ideal for sand digging.
Happy jerboa
After half an hour of sand shaving, wood chips, and cleaning the surroundings, a new home was built, and the jerboa was very satisfied and placed a pose in front of the house.
02 Go out foraging
After a day of sleep, coupled with just a huge workload, the jerboa was already hungry. At this point, it needs to be supplemented with a large amount of high-quality protein. The jerboa is a good hunter, depending on its large ears, sharp nose, and strong hind legs.
Weighing only 30-40g and 100 mm long, they have ears up to 45 mm and can hear sounds from 200 meters away; The nose is like a pig's nose, capable of keenly smelling the smell of prey in the air; The strong backward bounce is very strong, and it can jump to more than a meter high in height of a few centimeters.
Tonight, there are many crickets, a stunned green cricket flew over the head of the jerboa, the jerboa hind legs stomped on the ground, quickly exerted force, instantly bounced to a height of 80cm, the front paws firmly grasped the cricket, a delicious meal came to hand.
After eating a delicious meal, it caught five or six in a row, and after the wine was full, it found some fresh grass roots on the way home to consume food, eat well, must be meat and vegetarian, nutritional balance.
03 Game with cats
As agriculture entered the desert and illegal mining, humans brought a lot of cats, some abandoned cats gradually feralized, they are tireless about catching jerboa, a wild cat can catch and bite more than 20 jerboas in one night. In just a few years, 80% of jerboas died in the mouths of wildcats.
Wildcats bite jerboas
The surviving jerboa naturally had a way to deal with feral cats. First, it made its home deep in the desert, where there were very few feral cats; Second, the dangerous world exercises its tense nerves, and as long as there is a slight noise within 200 meters, it will run far or hide in the hole and block the hole. Third, move often so that the feral cat cannot find it. With these methods, it survived very well, which also confirmed Darwin's "natural selection, survival of the fittest" sentence.
04 Sell cute
The world is so beautiful, of course, we must feel the world well. After a busy night, the moon gradually sets, the sun rises slowly, with a well-fed stomach, lying on the sand in front of the new home, quietly admiring this beautiful world.
As the sun rose and the temperature soared to 40 degrees, the jerboa yawned and burrowed into its comfortable new home, and went to sleep beautifully.