We all know gerbils are great – but there is an eponymous gerbil which is actually known as a Great Gerbil – and he is great in both name and size.
Rhombomys opimus, as he is known to his friends, is a gerbil of such proportions that your 10″ Silent Spinner would quake in its boots!
They are the largest gerbil on the planet and can reach 20cms (8inches) bodylength – twice that with their tail – and they have the appearance of a sort of fat squirrel?
Watch this short video to see them in action in their home town:
They live in communal family groups underground like marmots and the such, eating mainly fresh greenery and have been know to eat through whole fields of crops. They can also make cows disappear into the ground if they follow the wrong path…
I don’t mean to tarnish our cute furries with this type of brush, but it is almost for sure now that the Black Death was actually spawned in a Great Gerbil nest; it just got a piggy back on the rats when they landed in mainland Europe.
The bacteria that caused it (Yersinia pestis) is still found across the world today – even in chipmunks and prairie dogs in the States. Just waiting for the right conditions to strike again… (hopefully not though)
Can you keep Great Gerbils as pets?
Well, I wouldn’t assume they would be the best candidates for home life seeing as you would probably need a whole clan of them and they like burrowing underground – perhaps they should be left to those with a large back yard or those who own a large wildlife park for example?
However, seeing as they are a bit smaller than the average chinchilla, they aren’t impossible to home indoors if you make a few adaptations, but my 4ft tanks already take up a whole side of my room, so I can’t imagine fitting one treble those dimensions indoors?
My 4 Shaw’s Jirds nearly overtook the whole place and they are only half the size of a great gerbil. Hmm?
Living with Great Gerbils?
I would imagine their diet was a bit more niche than our domesticated species – so being one of the first people to keep them as pets – you may have to take time to study their biology and nutrition along the way. I know some other large rodents have adapted to purely grass-based diets – so there is all this to work out before anyone get poorly!
Apparently they are quite grumpy too – not like our little gerbabies. So I can’t imagine cuddles while watching TV with a bunch of them?
So I suppose the real question should be not ‘Can you keep them as pets’ but should you?
Somethings are better left in the wild are they not… (including Yesinia pestis)