The Real Academia, which is the Spanish authority on the language, has an
online dictionary. I can't remember the URL, but I found it by asking
Jeeves how to say Gerbil in Spanish. The online dictionary does take you to
"jerbo" if you type in gerbil, but upon reading the definition, I realized
this was not the gerbil we know and love, but a jerboa, as Whitney
suspected. The definition says that the jerbo is a North African animal
about the size of a rat, with a brownish upper coat and an off-white belly,
and has a tuft of hair at the end of the tail. This is indeed a jerboa.
BTW, Hamster is there, with an accent over the "a" just as was stated by at
least two people earlier. But gerbil remains somewhat elusive.
> a site using the Espanol "jerbos" as in (if I remember what I just read):
> "ratas, ratones, hamsters, jerbos, cobayas, y conejas". I assume "jerbos"
> might be jerboas? Or maybe gerbil since there is some evidence that
> "cobaya" can be cavy?
>
