Allactaga elater is a widespread species that occurs from Turkey, the Caucasus, west to the Russia and China. This species is more specifically found in loamy and rubbly deserts, solonetzic and desertified steppes in SE Europe, N Caucasus and Transcaucasia through Kazakhstan and Central Asia to S Siberia, to NE Xinjiang, Nei Mongol, and N Gansu, China, and western Mongolia. Southern part of the range includes SW Pakistan, Afghanistan; Iran; E Turkey (Shenbrot et al. 1995, Wilson and Reeder 2005).