Usually referred to as a gerbil, the jird is a little creature of North African descent. Most jirds belong to the genus Meriones. Therefore, to be accurate, the gerbil most commonly kept as a pet, the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), is actually a jird.
The term jird is an Arabic word meaning large desert rodent. There are currently 14 different species of jirds but only a few are typically kept as pets. The Shaw’s jird is the most popular followed by the Sundevall jird and Libyan jird.
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