A cartoon, by definition, is a sketch that interests or amuses by portraying persons, animals, things etc. in an exaggerated way. Take the Mickey Mouse for instance. Even those of us who are not good at drawing, can make a recognisable Mickey Mouse face by drawing two big, round ears to a sharp face!

Recently scientists have caught on camera, for the first time, extra ordinary creatures that look as if they had jumped out of a cartoon book! These tiny animals which hop about like little kangaroos have huge ears and long-long tails. They look so cute in the video that every one of us would love to have one as a pet!

The animals, named ‘long-eared’ Jerboa, were filmed in the Gobi desert during an expedition led by Dr Baillie. The expedition formed part of the Edge programme of the Zoological Society of London, which focuses its efforts on conservation plans for animals that are both endangered and evolutionarily distinctive. The long-eared jerboa is one of 10 species that the programme is looking at this year.

A jerboa is a rat-like mammal that lives in the deserts of Africa, Asia, and south-east Europe. It is similar to the kangaroo rat in that it has large, powerful hind legs that can propel it faster than a human can run. With a single leap, a jerboa can travel ten times its own body length forwards and 12 times as long upwards. Its tail alone is about one and half times the size of its body!

The jerboas are solitary, nocturnal (active at night) animals which spend the day in individual burrows the entrance to these is often plugged! Their diet consists of plant matter, especially seeds, and insects.

Astonishingly, the jerboa does not drink, but survives on water obtained from food or produced by its own metabolism. It is also believed that moisture is recycled from exhaled breath.

The long-eared jerboa is a sub-species. They are so called because of their enormous ears which almost dwarf the tiny animal! These creatures have little hairs on their feet, almost like snow shoes, which allow them to jump along the sand. But very little else is known about these amazing animals. It had been extremely difficult to study them because of the tiny size, nocturnal nature and the harsh desert environment that they inhabit.

Dr Baillie is understandably "ecstatic" to have tracked down the jerboas and filmed them. By setting pitfall traps, the researchers were also able to look at the rodents close-up and to begin to estimate their population.

“These amazing, remarkable creatures are on the verge of extinction and we know almost nothing about them," warned Dr Baillie. The long-eared jerboa had already been classified as endangered on the IUCN (The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red list
Hopefully, the new footage and studies on the animal would help develop a thorough long-term action plan to save them from extinction.