Gerbils as Pets

Gerbils are desert-dwelling rodents. There are approximately 50 species, and only a few of these are commonly kept as pets. It was a French Missionary, Father Armand David, who discovered the Mongolian Gerbil in the 1866. He found them in Northern China and called them 'yellow rats'. He sent a few of these 'yellow rats' to the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

The scientist Milne-Edwards called them 'Meriones Unguiculatus' which is translated as 'clawed warrior'.

In the 1930s Professor Kasugo from the Japanese Kitasata Institute captured wild Mongolian Gerbils (also known as the Clawed Jird). Twenty pairs were captured in eastern Mongolia and transported to Japan. He was the first to breed them in captivity.

The Mongolian gerbil proved to be a useful laboratory animal. Scientists liked them because they were naturally gentle and not as likely to bite. Laboratories liked to use animals that were hardy, easy to feed, and would breed readily in captivity, and gerbils were all of these.

Twenty years later, four pairs of their descendants were taken to America. The only downfall of bringing these animals to the United States was that they would not be used for pets as first. Instead they were used in laboratories for scientific research.

In the 1966, 12 pairs of Mongolian Gerbils were imported into the UK.

By the 1970s, their use began to extend beyond laboratories and they quickly became a popular pet in many countries. Pet gerbils are illegal in the state of California and Hawaii. In the wild, a type of gerbil species damaged grassland in China so much that in 2003, officials began releasing eagles to combat the damage. The California Department of Fish and Game banned gerbils for a similar reason. They are concerned that gerbils could damage crops and displace native wildlife if they become established in the wild.