Shaw's jirds are indigenous to the coastal regions around North Africa, encompassing the warm and arid areas of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, and according to research done by Lay and Nadler in 1969, they are never found more than 150 miles inland.

As opportunists and desert adaptation specialists their habitat can be wide ranging and the Jirds can be found in many different areas along the Western Mediterranean coastal desert regions. Their burrows can be found virtually everywhere; these include areas of cultivated fields with clay soil, sandy areas dotted with date palms, rocky slopes to areas overgrown with local flora. Local flora is dominated by species belonging to families typical of the palearctic* regions, and can include tall shrubs to trees. In Egypt- researchers found Shaw's Jird burrows in the hard clay of the Western Mediterranean Coastal Desert, particularly beneath the shrubs of Anabasis articulata and Lycium species, where its burrows were often mistaken for those of Psammomys obesus and vice versa. The jirds had also been collected from Bedouin barley fields, (where It most likely takes a toll from the annual crop there) fields overgrown with thistles, beneath Lycium species on rocky slopes and coastal dunes, and in mounds of sand around Nitraria retusa in the eastern part of El Maghra

The Jird burrow system can be extensive and have several entrances, which remain unclosed by day. The actual entrances to their burrows can often be located beneath nearby shrubs. The burrow usually consists of food storage chambers nearer to the surface and nesting chambers can be found at greater depths within the burrow. Nesting material is usually made from local dried vegetation.

*The Palearctic region encompasses Europe, North Asia, and North Africa. It is one of the biogeographical realms into which the earth is divided according to the distribution of animal (fauna) life (see map below)

The Shaw's Jird does not have a specific breeding season in the wild, or in captivity, and sexually active males have been observed in March, July, and November.

When the climate becomes favourable, Jird numbers can suddenly explode, and they are often considered as pests when their burrows start to occupy cultivated fields. This is often the case in Egypt and in the northern belt of Algeria. Apart from eating the cultivated plants, they damage irrigation structures by burrowing, and they also have the potential to spread disease. However in some of these coastal regions where the Shaw's jird resides, the human population density is low or absent altogether. Also many areas in these regions are often too saline to be used for farming. Human populations are mainly concentrated around water sources.

They are well adapted to survive in these regions with high summer temperatures, low winter temperatures and rainfall between 10 and 100 mm per year. In some years rainfall can be totally absent. Local temperatures can be over 50 C in the summer, which creates evaporation rates that far exceeds the amount that actually falls as rain, to 0C during winter periods.

Of all the rodents in these regions gerbil species are the most abundant. The gerbillus group is well represented and includes G.jamesi, G.perpallidus, G.nanus G. campestris, G.simoni, and G.syrticus. Fat sand rats (P.obesus and P.vexillaris) and Pachyuromys duprasi can also be found in these regions. Similar to the Shaw's jird and coming from the same genus as Meriones, M.libycus and M.crassus can also be found in the same region as Shaw's. Other desert adapted species that share the same habitats can include the Jaculus jerboas, J.orientalis and J.jaculus, and also the four toed jerboa Allactaga tetradactyla. Also Massoutiera mzabi and Ctenodactylus wali (Sahara Gundi) and C.gundi (Atlas Gundi)

Shaw's jirds have several predators that include birds such as owls, Striped Hyenas (Hyaena hyaena barbara) and also fennec foxes (Vulpes zerda).  Reptilian predators include the desert Varan or grey monitor lizard (Varanus griseus) and horned viper (Cerastes cerastes)

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