Ecology and Behavior
The great gerbil's burrows can be fairly extensive with separate chambers for nests and food storage. These animals spend considerably more time in the burrows during winter, but do not hibernate. They are predominantly diurnal. Food consists mostly of vegetable matter.
The animals are often colonial, with multiple individuals inhabiting a single burrow system. Longevity is 2–4 years. Burrow system complexes have a distinctive region of cleared soil and can be easily seen in aerial photos.
Great gerbils are known reservoirs of Yersinia, the parasite that causes plague, and of Leishmania major, the causative agent of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis. They are also known as crop pests and have been implicated in exacerbating erosion.
Read more about this topic: Great Gerbil
Famous quotes containing the words ecology and/or behavior:
“... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.”
—Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)
“Fatalism, whose solving word in all crises of behavior is “All striving is vain,” will never reign supreme, for the impulse to take life strivingly is indestructible in the race. Moral creeds which speak to that impulse will be widely successful in spite of inconsistency, vagueness, and shadowy determination of expectancy. Man needs a rule for his will, and will invent one if one be not given him.”
—William James (1842–1910)