Facebook Friends: Israel: Buxton’s Jird (Meriones sacramenti)
In celebration of the fact that more than 100 people like the Daily Mammal on Facebook, I’ve been drawing mammals from the countries where those people live. Today’s is from Israel. This is Buxton’s jird, also known as the Negev jird, for it burrows in the sand of the Negev, a desert region in southern Israel. Some sources say that it’s the only mammal endemic to Israel, but the IUCN (which rates this jird as vulnerable on its endangerment scale) says that it’s also to be found not only in Israel but occupied Palestine and Egypt’s northern Sinai peninsula as well.
Jirds are rodents that are related to gerbils, and sometimes the two terms are used synonymously. They eat seeds, roots, fruit, vegetation, and insects. This one was described in 1922 by Oldfield Thomas and named in honor of Sir Edward North Buxton, a British hunter, politician, and conservationist who died the next year. Thomas, one of the most important mammalogists of his day, has many, many mammal species and a genus named for him, but we have met none of them yet here at the Daily Mammal. Threats to Buxton’s jird, I understand, include urbanization, agriculture, drought, and invasive species like an Australian acacia tree that, once introduced to Israel, began altering the ecosystem.
Hi Jennifer,
This is absolutely amazing work. I’m in awe, both of the work, and the fact that you keep up the posting.
I’m sure that everyone else has suggested illustration, and you write so well–something of your own?
My more recent work is at jabberwocky.net
Best wishes,
Seana
Thank you so much, Seana! I’m sorry I didn’t see your comment until today! I haven’t posted in so very long! I want to get back to it soon. I do miss it. I love your drawings, too! They’re beautiful.
If the Buxton’s jird is only found in Israel, why not call it “Israeli jird”?
Because “it is only found in Israel” is different from “it is the only kind of jird found in Israel”.
It was described by Oldfield Thomas and named in honor of Sir Edward North Buxton. It’s possible that he didn’t know it was found only in Israel, or even that at the time, it wasn’t found only in Israel. Maybe he just wanted to honor Buxton or owed him a favor. Animals are named after all kinds of things besides where they live, anyway, though this one is also called the Negev jird after the desert where it’s found. As I said in the post, at any rate, it seems that it isn’t actually only in Israel.