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Description
Order: Rodents (Rodentia)
Family: Gliridae
Habitat: valleys of the rivers flowing into the Fourseas.

Rodents are among the most successful mammals. Throughout the Cenozoic, they rapidly evolved, occupying a variety of ecological niches. About half of the mammal species in the human era were rodents. After humans, rodents continued to successfully evolve, and in the Neocene they remained as diverse as in the human age.
Ruinous dormouse is a descendant of edible dormouse (Glis glis), and is a close relative of sable dormouse, that habits the trees. This predatory rodent reaches the size of a domestic cat. Fur colouring is camouflage - on a brown background scattered small black spots. There is a black “mask” around the eyes, like a raccoon. The abdomen is lighter, there is a white spot on the throat.
The tail is fluffy and rather long - up to half the total length of the animal. If the predator or the owner of the nest grabs the dormouse by the tail, then the skin will pull off like a glove and the dormouse will calmly run away. However, this “insurance policy” is valid only once, the skin on the tail does not grow back. After a few days, the bare tail dries out and soon disappears, without causing harm to the animal.
Most of the diet consists of eggs of birds and reptiles, chicks and cubs of small animals. Also, the ruinous dormouse eagerly eats large insects.
This species of rodents keeps on the open areas of the steppes, overgrown with high grass, or in the bushes, it never climbs trees, but it spends more time hunting burrow animals. It lives strictly alone, guarding and marking the boundaries of an individual territory.
Usually in the conditions of the warm winters of the Neocene epoch, the dormouse is active all year round, although in winter her activity is limited to a few hours of the day. If winter is especially cold, the rodent hibernates somewhere in a hole or deep hollow.
The mating season starts in March. Males call for females, looking for their tags, and making ringing clicks. After mating, the male leaves the territory of the female, and searches for another female. Pregnancy lasts about three weeks. Cubs are born in a nest, twisted in the bushes. Sometimes the female arranges shelters in the rodent holes (often gopher dogs, the most common steppe rodents), but the nesting chamber is still lined with grass in the manner of a wicker spherical nest.
The female takes care of the offspring for about a month, after which the young growth becomes relatively independent, and goes to the edge of the mother’s territory. Half year old cubs reach the size of an adult beast, but the offspring are brought only in the spring of the next year. For the year, the female has two broods. The life expectancy of the riunous dormouse rarely exceeds 7 years.

This species was discovered by Simon, the forum member.

Description
Order: Rodents (Rodentia)
Family: Gliridae
Habitat: valleys of the rivers flowing into the Fourseas.

Rodents are among the most successful mammals. Throughout the Cenozoic, they rapidly evolved, occupying a variety of ecological niches. About half of the mammal species in the human era were rodents. After humans, rodents continued to successfully evolve, and in the Neocene they remained as diverse as in the human age.
Ruinous dormouse is a descendant of edible dormouse (Glis glis), and is a close relative of sable dormouse, that habits the trees. This predatory rodent reaches the size of a domestic cat. Fur colouring is camouflage - on a brown background scattered small black spots. There is a black “mask” around the eyes, like a raccoon. The abdomen is lighter, there is a white spot on the throat.
The tail is fluffy and rather long - up to half the total length of the animal. If the predator or the owner of the nest grabs the dormouse by the tail, then the skin will pull off like a glove and the dormouse will calmly run away. However, this “insurance policy” is valid only once, the skin on the tail does not grow back. After a few days, the bare tail dries out and soon disappears, without causing harm to the animal.
Most of the diet consists of eggs of birds and reptiles, chicks and cubs of small animals. Also, the ruinous dormouse eagerly eats large insects.
This species of rodents keeps on the open areas of the steppes, overgrown with high grass, or in the bushes, it never climbs trees, but it spends more time hunting burrow animals. It lives strictly alone, guarding and marking the boundaries of an individual territory.
Usually in the conditions of the warm winters of the Neocene epoch, the dormouse is active all year round, although in winter her activity is limited to a few hours of the day. If winter is especially cold, the rodent hibernates somewhere in a hole or deep hollow.
The mating season starts in March. Males call for females, looking for their tags, and making ringing clicks. After mating, the male leaves the territory of the female, and searches for another female. Pregnancy lasts about three weeks. Cubs are born in a nest, twisted in the bushes. Sometimes the female arranges shelters in the rodent holes (often gopher dogs, the most common steppe rodents), but the nesting chamber is still lined with grass in the manner of a wicker spherical nest.
The female takes care of the offspring for about a month, after which the young growth becomes relatively independent, and goes to the edge of the mother’s territory. Half year old cubs reach the size of an adult beast, but the offspring are brought only in the spring of the next year. For the year, the female has two broods. The life expectancy of the riunous dormouse rarely exceeds 7 years.

This species was discovered by Simon, the forum member.