| Sand Rat Temporal range: Late Miocene - Recent |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Superfamily: | Muroidea |
| Family: | Muridae |
| Subfamily: | Gerbillinae |
| Genus: | Psammomys |
| Species: | P. obesus |
| Binomial name | |
| Psammomys obesus |
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The sand rat (Psammomys obesus), also known as the fat sand rat, is a terrestrial mammal from the gerbil subfamily that is mostly found in North Africa and the Middle East, ranging from Mauritania to the Arabian Peninsula.
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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 family.
The sand rat is diurnal, but its activity on the surface depends on the ambient temperature.
The sand rat normally has two litters every year, each litter usually ranges between three to seven pups.
Sand rats can easily acquire diabetes mellitus when they are fed a normal rodent diet of grains. Therefore they have been used as an animal model for studies on diabetes. Because they are diurnal, they are also used as models for human seasonal affective disorder.[1]
The presence of sand rats in North Africa and the Middle East is of healthcare importance, as this species can harbor the parasite which causes leishmaniasis in humans.
These animals have been studied extensively for their remarkably efficient kidneys: they can produce very concentrated urine which enables them to eat halophyte plants and survive extreme heat and lack of water in their desert habitat.[2]