A man from northwest China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region has found a “jumping mouse,” reported to be the smallest in the world, with photos widely circulating online.
Chen Wenjie, a bird enthusiast, discovered the "mouse" when driving on a village road in Hotan prefecture, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The hopping mouse, which had a pig-like face and a body that is a bit larger than a cap of bottled water, weighed as much as a one yuan coin, Chen said. Out of curiosity, he put it inside an empty bottle and brought it back home.
"It's a sleepy creature and only comes out of the bottle at night. One day, it slept for around 17 hours, wrapping its long tail around its neck and ignoring all noises," Chen said.
Jiang Wei, a researcher with the center for disease control and prevention in Xinjiang, identified the "mouse" as a dwarf three-toed jerboa, a species of rodent usually found in the deserts of southern Xinjiang, the neighboring Gansu and Inner Mongolia regions, and Kazakhstan.
Jiang said that the jerboa travels over its dry desert habitat by long hops. Its tail is two times its body length and serves as storage for additional fat as its body is too small to store it.
The life span of the jerboa is around two years. They produce only three or four offsprings each year, with the newborns the size of a peanut kernel, said Jiang.
Chen, who still likes to call it a "jumping mouse," told Xinhua that he has since released the creature.