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b"Thanks to Zachary and Oran for this week's topic, some little animals that bounce around like tiny kangaroos!\\n\\nFurther reading:\\n\\nEvolution of Kangaroo-Like Jerboas Sheds Light on Limb Development\\n\\nSupposedly extinct kangaroo rat resurfaces after 30 years\\n\\nHigh-Speed Videos Show Kangaroo Rats Using Ninja-Style Kicks to Escape Snakes\\n\\nWilliams's jerboa [picture by Mohammad Amin Ghaffari - https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/177950563, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115769436]:\\n\\n\\n\\nA drawing of a jerboa skeleton. LEGS FOR DAYS:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe San Quintin kangaroo rat lives! [photo from article linked above]\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\nThis week we\\u2019re going to learn about two cute little animals suggested by Zachary and Oran! Both of these animals are rodents but although they look remarkably alike in some unusual ways, they\\u2019re not actually all that closely related.\\nFirst, Zachary suggested the jerboa. We talked about the pygmy jerboa in episode 136, but we haven\\u2019t talked about jerboas in general. It\\u2019s a small rodent that\\u2019s native to the deserts of Asia, north Africa, and the Middle East. It\\u2019s usually brown or tan with some darker shading on the back and tail. It looks sort of like a gerbil with long ears, long hind legs, and a tuft at the end of the tail. Its front legs are short and it has an adorable whiskery nose.\\nThe reason the jerboa\\u2019s hind legs are so long while its front legs are really short is that it jumps around on its hind legs like a kangaroo. Not only can it jump really fast, up to 15 mph, or 24 km/h, it can change directions incredibly fast too. This helps it evade predators, because most animals are fastest when running in a straight line. The jerboa bounces in all sorts of directions, hopping or just running on its long hind legs, with its long tail held out for balance. It can also run on all fours with its short front legs helping it maneuver, but for the most part it\\u2019s a bipedal animal. It has tufts of stiff hairs under its toes that help it run through loose sand.\\nThe jerboa eats plants, although sometimes if it finds a nice juicy insect it will eat it too. Mostly it just eats leaves, bulbs, roots, and some seeds. It gets all of the moisture it needs from its diet, which is good because it lives in the desert where there\\u2019s not much water available.\\nSome species of jerboa mainly eat insects and spiders, and some have short ears instead of long ears. This is the case for the thick-tailed pygmy jerboa that lives in parts of China, Mongolia, and Russia. Its head and body only measures about two inches long, or almost 5 cm, but its tail is twice that length. The reason it\\u2019s called a thick-tailed jerboa is because it stores fat at the base of its tail, which makes the tail look thick compared to many rodent tails.\\nThe jerboa is mostly active at dawn and dusk, although some species are fully nocturnal. It spends the day in a burrow it digs in sand or dirt. A jerboa will usually have more than one burrow in its territory, with the entrances usually hidden under a bush or some other plant. Different burrows have different purposes. Some have numerous entrances and lots of side tunnels but are relatively shallow, which is useful if the jerboa lives in an area with a rainy season. A shallow burrow won\\u2019t flood if it rains a lot. Some burrows are temporary, which the jerboa may dig if it\\u2019s out and about during the day looking for food. A mother jerboa will dig a burrow with a roomy nesting chamber to raise her babies, and a jerboa\\u2019s winter burrow has a nesting chamber that\\u2019s deep underground to help it stay warm. Some species of jerboa construct unusual burrows, like the lesser Egyptian jerboa that has spiral-shaped burrows with storage chambers. Most jerboas are solitary animals, although sometimes a group will hibernate together in winter to help everyone stay warmer.\\nScientists have been studying the jerboa to learn..."