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Ancestor: West Catlandian Bush Mouse

Size: Around 9 cm (16 cm including the tail)

Dietary Needs: Fruit, seeds and insects primarily, except when out of season. Grain occasionally, especially when other food is more difficult to find.

Life Cycle: Females seek males between each litter, and males attract females with ultrasonic chirps. Males compete over territory and females, while females compete mainly over ideal nesting spaces.

The female makes a nest similar to a bird's nest to give birth in and keeps her pups for only about five days, after which point they become mobile and hold on to her body when she travels, forming a small pile of babies on her back. By taking them with her she can feed her rapid metabolism and feed her pups during the same outing. This allows the pup to grow faster, which allows the mother to raise two to three litters a year, rather than one to two. They also develop the strength they will need to climb on their own by holding on to their mother's fur tirelessly. Having pups hang on as passengers is an example of convergent evolution, as it has occurred independently in mice descended from the pith mice, such as folivorous mice.

What starts as typically between 6 - 9 pups usually ends in 1 - 2 pups surviving to adulthood, though more pups than that survive sometimes.

Other: Good climber with excellent rubbery foot traction as well as sharp claws. Prefers the protection of densely tangled shrubby branches, particularly shrubs with needly branches or actual thorns. Although they can still run fast like their ancestor, they can move easiest through spindly twigs and branches rather than the ground, and are able to flee very quickly from predators such as weaving cats.

Is capable of sleeping hanging upside down with it's tail coiled around a branch, while also having a litter of 8 small pups attached.