It is found in the Upper and Lower Sonoran life zones of the southwestern United States, Baja California, and northern Mexico.

Kangaroo rats are named for their extremely long, kangaroo-like hind feet and they are almost completely bipedal.

They defend their territories against other male and female merriami, primarily to protect often scarce food resources.

The greater the amounts of moonlight the less time they spend collecting food, defending their territory, or searching for mates.

When they are active above ground they move about within their territory and attempt to fill their cheek pouches with seeds and plant material.

Some of the food is eaten immediately while the remainder is stored (often building a seed cache of considerable size) in several chambers within the burrow system.

Kangaroo rats lose water mainly by evaporation during gas exchange, and so have developed a behavioural adaptation to prevent this loss.

This causes the moisture in the air to be absorbed by the seeds, and the kangaroo rat regains the water it has previously lost when it then consumes them.

However, in southern California one subspecies, the San Bernardino kangaroo rat, Dipodomys merriami parvus, is at risk due primarily to urban development including construction of dams and alteration of hydrologic regimes throughout its range.