Dolgonog

Outwardly, this animal resembles a miniature kangaroo or a giant jerboa the size of a hare : its body length is 35-45 cm, it weighs 3-4 kg. When he sits on his hind legs, his height at the shoulders reaches 30 cm. The head of a long-legged man is short, with a blunt little muzzle. The neck is thick and muscular. The eyes are large; the ears are long and narrow, similar to the hare's, reach 9 cm in height. The auricle trestle prevents the ingress of sand inside. The long-legged hind limbs are very long, and the front ones are small, but armed with strong sharp claws adapted for digging. The claws on the hind limbs are flattened, somewhat resemble hoofs. The forelimbs are 5-fingered, the hind-limbs are 4-fingered, with a reduced I finger and a very short V finger. The tail is long (37–48 cm), thickly covered with hair, especially at the end.

The body of the longwalker is covered with thick, silky hair without undercoat. On the back the scalp has a sandy, brownish or reddish-brown color with individual black and white hairs; on his belly he is almost white. The tail at the end is dark or black. Nipples one pair - in the chest. In addition to 4 incisors, the long-legged has 16 more chewing teeth without roots. These teeth grow throughout life, as their surfaces quickly wear off coarse plant food.

Dolgonog occurs from the south of Congo and Kenya to the Cape of Good Hope . A small population lives in East Africa . It inhabits desert and semi-desert plains, sometimes cattle pastures and cultivated areas where wheat , oats and barley are grown . Most often long-legged settlers settle on sandy, dry soils, in the valleys of rivers covered with light forest. Here they sometimes arrange entire settlements of holes, which are easily detected by soil emissions. Long-legged are active at night; during the day, hiding in the hole, the animal from the inside closes the entrance with an earthen plug to keep the hole cool in the daytime. In each hole lives one animal or a pair of young. But since in settlements the burrows are located close, and the personal section of one animal occupies only 25–250 m around the burrow, it seems that the long-legged people keep and feed in groups.

In a calm state, they move on four limbs, digging out the front fodder. But in case of danger, like a kangaroo, they jump to huge rebound jumps on their hind legs. The length of the jump can reach 2-3 m (according to some data, 6-9 m). This, in combination with long “hare” ears, gave the long-legged Englishman the name “hare-jumper” ( springhare ).

It feeds on long-standing and succulent underground parts of plants, rarely insects and lizards. Loves to lick salt protruding on the ground. May cause damage to agricultural crops.

Dolgonogues produce 2–4 litters per year with an average of 101 day breaks. Pregnancy lasts 78-82 days and ends with the birth of a single baby. The newborn male weighs on average 300 g, the female - 278 g. The newborn is covered with hair, but is blind; sees the light on day 3 of life. At the age of 7 weeks, young long-legged leave their mother Puberty is achieved with a weight of 2.5 kg.

Long-legged meat is tasty, so the locals often hunt it with a gun or flooding their holes with water. Its skin is also used. In captivity, this animal is peace-loving and gets on well with its relatives; 2-3 weeks becomes manual. In agricultural areas, long-legged dogs harm crops of barley , wheat , oats , and peanuts . Until 2001 , this species was listed in the International Red Book; Now he does not belong to the protected.