Millions of years ago, jerboas lived in Asia, Europe and Africa. Today Asian jerboas live in the deserts of China, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. There are also African jerboas in northern African deserts.

You can tell where a jerboa comes from by counting their toes: Asian jerboas have five toes on their back paws and African ones have three.

During the day jerboas sleep in underground nests. They come out at night, and hop about the desert looking for food. Jerboas eat almost anything. They like vegetables, fruit and grain best, but they'll also eat insects.

The long-eared jerboa that lives in the Trans-Altai Gobi Desert and the Gobi Desert in Mongolia is endangered. It is so hard to find that very little is known about it.

However, earlier this year this rare mouse was captured dancing about in front of a wildlife video camera. Maybe technology will help us learn more about this living Mickey Mouse!

True or false?

a. Jerboas are rodents.

b. Jerboas are nocturnal.

c. Jerboas live in deserts.

The Ryukyu mouse

Find words that mean the opposite:

ugly, night, uncommon

The Ryukyu Mouse has a brown back and a cream tummy. It has big eyes, big ears and a long tail, which make it look very sweet.

It lives in grasslands and forests, where it eats seeds and occasionally insects. Farmers don't like this mouse very much because it also lives in paddy fields where it steals rice.

Ryukyu mice are mostly nocturnal. However, some will go out and look for food during the day.

This shy rodent is common in many parts of South East Asia but rare in Hong Kong. Good places to try to spot this mouse are Mai Po Nature Reserve and the Hong Kong Wetland Park.

World travelling rats

Choose the correct alternative:

Scientists think the first brown rats appeared in Asia. They think the first house rats appeared in India.

Brown rats and house rats will eat anything. They steal food from kitchens and rubbish dumps in cities, and eat crops in fields in the country.

Because they can live/life in many different environments, brown rats and house rats have spread. They travelled on ships and in carts and ended up in Europe in the 1500s. Buy/by 1750 they settled in North America.

Today brown rats and house rats live on ships, in houses in the North Pole, on mountaintops, in deserts and in cities. Wherever people live, these rats live to/too.

You might not like rats very much, but they are survivors!

The great rodent family

Find words that mean:

constantly, famous, largest

Mice and rats belong to a group of mammals called rodents. All rodents have four sharp front teeth that grow all the time. To keep these teeth from growing too long, rodents have to chew a lot.

There are 27 rodent families. Well-known rodents include hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, as well as porcupines, beavers, squirrels, marmots, and chinchillas.

The world's biggest rodent is the capybara (pronounced KAPI-bara) that lives in South America. It can grow up to 135 cm long and 60 cm tall and weigh 80 kg.

The smallest rodent is the African Pygmy Mouse that lives south of the Sahara in Africa. The biggest are 8cm long and weigh 12 grams.

Although they are very different in size, both the capybara and pygmy mouse eat grass, grain, and plants.

See rodents in Hong Kong

Rats and mice live in cities - just look for them near the rubbish bins! But a more fun way to see rodents is to visit the countryside.

Chestnut rats run around hills and forests. You can spot them easily thanks to their white tummies and bright brown chests. Indochinese forest rats are bigger, darker in colour and have shaggy hair.

When in parks, look up in the trees for Pallas's squirrels and Indian giant flying squirrels. Look on the ground for the greater bandicoot rat. This rare rodent weighs about 1kg and grows up to 33cm long. It has shaggy black hair and a long bare tail.

Also check for Chinese porcupines and hedgehogs. These creatures sleep all day and go out at night to look for tree bark, roots, leaves, plants and fruit. They're common everywhere except for Lantau Island.

If you don't see one when out in the forest, visit the ones living in the Botanical Gardens and Zoo.

Internet URLs

fab fact!

Chinese horoscopes say that people born in the Year of the Rat are creative, honest, and generous but also ambitious, quick-tempered and wasteful. In Hindu folklore, rats are the servants of the elephant-headed god Lord Ganesh

fab fact!

In the 14th century, rats carrying fleas spread Bubonic plague around the world. Historians think about 75 million people died from the disease

now do this

Answer the following questions without referring to the text. If you can't remember the details, read the piece again.

1. You can tell an Asian from an African jerboa by:

a. counting its toes

b. the colour of its fur

c. its size

2. Ryukyu mice are:

a. common in Asia

b. rare in Asia

c. almost extinct

3. Brown rats and house rats eat:

a. rice and insects

b. fruit and vegetables

c. almost everything

4. Which is the biggest?

a. Ryukyu mouse

b. capybara

c. flying squirrel

5. Chestnut rats are:

a. bigger than Indochinese forest rats

b. smaller than Indochinese forest rats

c. the same size as Indochinese forest rats

6. Chinese porcupines sleep:

a. all day

b. all night

c. in the afternoons

compare!

There are about 56 species of rat and 38 species of mouse living today. Scientists can tell them apart but most people call small ones mice and big ones rats

Answers:

True or False: T, T, T

Find the antonyms: sweet, day, common

Correct alternative: live, by, too

Find the synonyms: all the time, well-known, biggest

Quiz: 1. a, 2. a, 3. c, 4. b, 5. b, 6. a