Communal Foxhopper

A little foxtrotter with a complicated and cooperative lifestyle, communal foxhoppers thrive on the upland plain by working together. 

Foxhoppers are a newly-diverged genus of small foxtrotters from Serinarcta, which live in underground colonies and shelter from heat and predators in deep, many-chambered burrow systems - extensions of ancestral family units and dens used to raise offspring, respectively, which have both now become more complex. These canitheres of the uplands have become much smaller than the glacial foxtrotter from which they evolved, weighing between 5 and 9 pounds, in order to more easily move underground in an open environment with relatively little ground cover either to stalk in or avoid being stalked in. They move with a tripedal bounding motion, rabbit-like, lending their name, and often rise onto their hind leg to watch their surroundings from a higher vantage. They have also evolved brighter and more contrasted markings for communication; an orange pelage with black and white markings stands out on the green plain when individuals peer up on their hind legs to keep count of others in the group, letting everyone keep track of everyone else. This is no a significant handicap against predators, as sentries alternate keeping watch over the group as they leave their dens to forage, so that they can be warned and bolt to safety before ever truly being at risk. Black stripes along the eyes, exaggerated from smaller marks in their ancestor, also reduce glare in direct midday sun. 

Mostly carnivorous, foxhoppers feed on burrowing molodonts, small birds such as meadowbirds, insects, worms, molluscs and other small prey which is dug up from the ground or chased and caught in the grass. They cache extra food underground where it is cooler and slower to rot, and unless food is very scarce, the colony all freely take what they each need from these stores with little conflict. The young are especially free to do whatever they like, and can even usually take what they need without objection from the mouth of an adult, if they so choose, though adults are likely to get snapped at if they tried to take food already being eaten by another adult, especially one higher ranking.

Foxhoppers are strong diggers, with sharp claws on all three legs, and their labyrinthine tunnels may extend for over 100 feet and over 30 feet below ground, with differentiated chambers for different pairs that function like individual apartments in a city and connect to communal gathering rooms, latrines, larders and many different exits. In the highly-social communal foxhopper, each colony is led by one dominant, central breeding pair, which suppress the reproductive cycles of the rest of the group which is composed of offspring and sometimes other relatives such as siblings or even older parents. The social system is fundamentally an expanded version of the glacial foxtrotter's simple male-female and offspring clan unit but multigenerational, so that litters of different ages remain in the colony for several years before dispersing, helping provide food for their younger siblings and to protect the group as a whole (this system is common to many other social animals, among them especially sparrowgulls.) The social hierarchy in foxhopper colonies is not stable, however - shifts of dominance are common, often occurring every couple years when elder offspring reach 2+ years of age in territories with a high population density that makes dispersing to form a new colony difficult. Young females around this age often acquire mates dispersing from other colonies, and the bolder ones will then challenge their parents or older siblings for dominance. A good alpha pair, who are equitable to their colony, will be defended by other loyal colony members and so can prevent losing their position for a while. If the leaders are disliked, however, the colony may cooperate with a new upstart to evict them.

Yet while many similar animals would cast out the losers in these contests of dominance, foxhoppers rarely do. Much of the aggression involved in the process is ritualized, rather than physical, and animals rarely get injured, respecting what amounts to social customs most of the time as it does not benefit the colony to injure one another, and the health of the colony is the health of its individuals in cooperative species like these. Dethroned dominant animals usually remain in the colony, for to leave it is more dangerous than it is worth for animals which have already managed to reproduce, but they fall to the bottom of the social hierarchy. Parents thus now help protect and provide for their offspring's offspring, and in return for their work, once they are old and less able to assist, they will be cared for in turn in their old age even after they can no longer contribute much to the group. The only circumstance in which foxhoppers will cast out some of their own can occur when a lower-ranking female becomes pregnant, and gives birth, as only one pair is permitted to produce offspring at a time. The lead female will aggressively reprimand her; if she fights back it can lead to a truly aggressive interaction in which the loser, no matter which one it is, will be driven out of the colony forever. A female who has just given birth is weak, so it is most likely to be the non-dominant one who loses in this case. In this unfortunate situation it is often in her best interest to be submissive and let the leader win uncontested, because she will at least not be chased away. The ruler will, however, take her babies away to her own den, and so they will cared for, but never know their real mother.

Foxhoppers, unlike many other clan animals, don't engage in infanticide, even when the babies come from a forbidden birth from a low-ranking pair, and even if a pair take over a colony while the previous leaders had dependent young with them. In both cases, they will instead continuing to care for these litter even as they raise their own. Even in food scarcity, females don't distinguish their own pups from others and will favor which only the strongest babies out of them all, whoever's they are, will be given priority at the expense of the weaker, even if the weaker is theirs. This is easily explained when it is considered that these dominance shifts always occur between already related individuals, as they are all related to some degree, and so the other pups still carry many of the new rulers' genes anyway. Gene dispersal exists through the movements of young animals, mostly males, between established colonies, as females are dominant and so rarely leave their birth groups. These newly-integrated males follow the lead of their mates in determining whether or not to try and vie for the alpha position, and even though they themselves may not be related to colony offspring, they will not harm them, lest they be severely reprimanded by their partner who is related to them. The only reason each colony almost always has only one authorized breeding pair is simply to prevent overpopulation; as they store food through hard times, and maintain relatively low reproductive output even in good times, the species maintains a highly stable overall population that is always in line with their food supply even as it changes seasonally and year to year. Combined with their excellent watch over one another and cooperative lifestyle that means even old and infirm animals are cared for, these small animals live surprisingly long lives and many die not from predation or starvation, but peacefully of old age - a true rarity in nature for any animal, but especially one so small. By combining all of their abilities and delaying immediate gratification - by storing food for later, sharing resources, and effectively taking turns reproducing over the lifespans of individual and the colony itself - communal foxhoppers achieve a higher standard of living than any individual could on its own.