On the Biology of the Five-Toed Pygmy Jerboa (CARDIOCRANIUS PARADOXUS Satunin, 1902) in Kazakhstan: New Data

摘要

The five-toed pygmy jerboa (C. paradoxus) belongs to a rare species of the faunas of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia (Berman, 1962; Smirnov, 1971; Orlov et al., 1972; Kapitonov, 1977; Kucheruk et al., 1980). In Kazakhstan, where this species was first discovered in 1970 (Smirnov, 1971), it inhabits only the regions located north of Lake Balkhash. The data on its biology and distribution in this region may be only found in several articles published in the 1970s and 1980s (Kapitonov and Ganyushin, 1971; Kapitonov, 1977; Mazin and Kasabekov, 1983). Because no additional studies on the ecology and behavior of this species have been performed during the past 20 years, new data on the state of the only population of five-toed pygmy jerboa in Kazakhstan are required. Hence, in July 2001, we performed an ecological and faunistic study of the five-toed pygmy jerboa in the northern Balkhash region in order to collect new data on its distribution, abundance, feeding, terrestrial activity, and the biotopes that it occupies.