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Ancestor: Pith Mouse

Size: Smallest:  9 cm (14cm when including the tail), Largest: 28 cm (50 cm when including the tail)

Dietary Needs: Most species are omnivores, though how heavily they lean towards herbivore may differ.

All species eat a considerable amount of seeds and will even make multiple hidden stockpiles, as many seed-eating animals do in South Catland. They use many different types of hiding spots, considering and modifying each carefully on an individual basis. As well as creative problem solving they also have good memory, though they still forget many of their stashing spots. 

Most species also eat a lot of fruit. In season insect larvae (the non-poisonous ones), eggs, chicks and baby mice are consumed when encountered defenceless. In winter when there is a lack of production from plants, sometimes any meat will do. Not all species eat a lot of leaves, and the Eastern species tend to eat the most leaves.

Life Cycle: Females fatten up while pregnant, usually on stockpiled seeds but sometimes on things like eggs and meat that become easier to acquire in the spring. They make a robust nest in a tree canopy, usually a crack or hole in a tree.  They line it with bedding and give birth and stay there for about a week after giving birth, continuously feeding the babies milk until the mother's fat reserves run low. Then she will start to leave them for periods of time to find food, and will start feeding them food. The first couple of weeks to become mobile is the fastest period of developmental change. After this point growth slows down and they will need much of the rest of the year to fully learn how to move and navigate through the trees intelligently in 3D, as well as learn from their mother the many different foods they can and can't eat at different times of year.

They have a larger litter than they are able to care for to adulthood and play favourites, only sharing food with offspring they like. This is usually the stronger, healthier, larger and more active ones. This is due to having adapted for a change in environment faster than their reproductive systems evolved for the new way of life. Life in the trees comes with many complexities, from cognitive to space constraints. This is moving the species further from being an R-selected one to a K-selected one.

They are territorial of their range and possessive of stockpiles, only tolerating members of the opposite  sex during the late winter and early spring. Males are aggressive to males and females aggressive to females at all times. The females are only fertile during the early time of year, reproductively shutting down for the rest of the year after pregnancy or if they missed the boat to get pregnant. This ensures they won't waste energy on offspring that won't be ready for winter (which is mild, but can have bad years) and helps the likelihood that they'll be fitter and more ready for mating and pregnancy the following year.

This reproductive cycle is less strict in populations of more Northern parts of the forests, where the winter period can be so mild that some offspring may survive being raised over this period. In some of these warmer climate populations some females reproductively shut down for the later part of the year, others don't.

Other: They are fast-moving in the trees. On rough vertical bark they use claws and a complex arrangement of foot pads to grip the bark, with their body flattened to it's surface. On narrow branches they can run, balance and jump between canopies using their long tail for balance. Unlike the foilvorous mice they are not as good at grasping, and can't as securely grip a twig or hug around wider branches. This sacrifice doesn't impede much on it's navigation in the trees, and when stationary and feeding or resting it can use it's tail as a lifeline by curling it tight around a branch so that even if it falls asleep the tension in the grip remains. They are also fast and agile on the ground and are braver to venture onto the ground than their folivorous cousin.

The are often hunted by cats and birds in the trees. They  need to be agile as unlike the folivorous mice they can't grasp the thinner branches and twigs with their paws tightly enough to hold on to them. Jumping from one canopy to another is sometimes a must, as a result they have strong leaping back legs. A few species have an extra centimetre or two out from their body of loose skin on their sides that help slow or direct a fall.