<p>The long-eared jerboa (seen in Mongolia's South Gobi Desert) was first recorded on film in 2007.</p>

The long-eared jerboa (seen in Mongolia's South Gobi Desert) was first recorded on film in 2007.

Photograph by Valeriy Maleev, Nature Picture Library

This animal has the biggest ears on Earth (relative to size)

The long-eared jerboa has ears that are two-thirds as long as its body.

Red Riding Hood thought the wolf had big ears. She had no idea.

From bugs to elephants, many animals have evolved large ears as adaptations to hot environments or strategies for finding food. (Read about what whale ears have that ours don’t.)

The African elephant has the biggest ears of any living animal. These floppy appendages serve to quickly dissipate heat through the ears’ many blood vessels into the air.

But their ears aren’t elephants’ only “ears.”

There are 33 species of this hopping rodent, native to the deserts of southern Mongolia and northwestern China.

The most oddly proportioned family member is the long-eared jerboa, first caught on film in the wild in 2007 during a Zoological Society of London

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