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Sand Rat

 
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Sand Rat (Psammomys obesus) also known as the Fat Sand Rat is a terrestrial mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
 from the gerbil
Gerbil

A Gerbil is a small mammal of the order Rodentia. Once known simply as "desert rats", the gerbil subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and meriones s, all of which are adapted to arid habitats....
 subfamily that is mostly found in North Africa and Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
 ranging from Mauritania
Mauritania

Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest....
 to the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. The area is an important part of the Middle East and plays a critically important geopolitics role because of its vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas....
.

species usually lives in sandy deserts, but may also be found in rocky terrain or saline-marsh areas. It lives in burrows which are often located under the bushes in which the rats forage, such as salt bushes of the Chenopodiaceae
Chenopodiaceae

Chenopodiaceae is a family of flowering plants. Although widely recognized in most plant classifications , the APG system and the APG II system have included these plants in the family Amaranthaceae on the basis of evidence from molecular phylogenies....
 family.

The Fat Sand Rat is diurnal, but its activity on the surface depends on the ambient temperature.

Rats can easily acquire diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus , often referred to simply as diabetes , is a syndrome of disordered metabolism, usually due to a combination of genetic disorder and environmental causes, resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels ....
 when they are fed a normal rodent diet of grains.






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Encyclopedia


Sand Rat (Psammomys obesus) also known as the Fat Sand Rat is a terrestrial mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
 from the gerbil
Gerbil

A Gerbil is a small mammal of the order Rodentia. Once known simply as "desert rats", the gerbil subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and meriones s, all of which are adapted to arid habitats....
 subfamily that is mostly found in North Africa and Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
 ranging from Mauritania
Mauritania

Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest....
 to the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. The area is an important part of the Middle East and plays a critically important geopolitics role because of its vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas....
.

Habitat, behavior and food habits

This species usually lives in sandy deserts, but may also be found in rocky terrain or saline-marsh areas. It lives in burrows which are often located under the bushes in which the rats forage, such as salt bushes of the Chenopodiaceae
Chenopodiaceae

Chenopodiaceae is a family of flowering plants. Although widely recognized in most plant classifications , the APG system and the APG II system have included these plants in the family Amaranthaceae on the basis of evidence from molecular phylogenies....
 family.

The Fat Sand Rat is diurnal, but its activity on the surface depends on the ambient temperature.

Medical significance

Sand Rats can easily acquire diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus , often referred to simply as diabetes , is a syndrome of disordered metabolism, usually due to a combination of genetic disorder and environmental causes, resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels ....
 when they are fed a normal rodent diet of grains. Therefore they have been used as an animal model for studies on diabetes.

The presence of Sand Rats in North Africa and the Middle East is of healthcare importance, as this species can harbor the parasite agent which causes Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites that belong to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the bite of certain species of sand fly ....
 in humans.

These animals have been studied extensively for their remarkably efficient kidneys: they can produce very concentrated urine which enables them to survive extreme heat and lack of water in desert environments.

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