Animals moving across granular media such as desert sand are challenged by reduced friction and increases in substrate compliance. Compliant granular media have the unique property of both solid and semi-liquid states. Here kinematics of self-motivated Meriones unguiculatus (Mongolian gerbil) are investigated on four granular substrates of various compliances, ranging from 0.25 mm up to 8mm in diameter, and one flat control substrate. Gerbils demonstrated higher maximum velocity on fine- (1.17 m^s-1) and intermediate-sized sandy substrates (1.10 m^s-1) compared to the non-compliant control substrate ( 0.95 m^s-1) (n = 9 gerbils, 4 trials each, ANOVA p<0.05). Particle properties of the two intermediate substrates of different particle sizes (0.23-0.6 mm vs. 0.57-1.4 mm diameter) had similar load-bearing capacity (0.7 N cm^-2) and bulk density (1.6 g ml^-1), and similar performance was observed in both (ANOVA p=0.54). The kinematics of gerbil runs also demonstrated the possibility of compensatory behaviours – by both hindlimb displacement and hopping frequency. The largest substrate particles (8mm) yielded lower average hop distances (0.1 meters vs. 0.13 meters) and overall maximum velocities (1.06 m s^-1 vs 0.95 m^s-1), compared to control treatment. Preliminary analyses suggest that gerbils may switch between a hop with both hindlimbs in tandem, and offsetting the hindlimbs, to modify overall velocity. Lower overall running performance on the non-compliant (flat ground) and highly compliant substrate suggest that gerbils might be optimised for naturally compliant substrates within a certain range.