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Ancestor: West Catland Sand Rabbit

Size:  Smallest species:  40cm long, Largest: 75cm long.  R. parvaurus is the largest species.

Dietary Needs: Most Furfoots consume grass and short herbaceous plants. They all also consume seaweed, and some like  Short-eared Furfoots consume large quantities of it. there aren't a lot of invertebrates in the deserts of this planet, but desert-dwelling Furfoots make food of the few they can find.

Life Cycle: The Short-eared Furfoots live in very small family groups centred around a breeding pair and offspring, as do most Furfoots. They do this to benefit from multiple pairs of eyes and ears without stepping on each other's toes too much when grazing the sparse grass and foliage available in sandy arid habitats.

When Furfoots are fully weaned at around 4 months they usually stick around and help out with their parents with early raising of the next generation. However, as the younger ones grow older, the older offspring are pressured out by the parents.

These rabbits can re-absorb their developing fetuses much later into their development than previously possible if the mother is starving, rather than abort them. This saves energy and nutrients, and reduces the stress on the mother as miscarriage comes with risks of infection and blood loss. There may still be a minor discharge, especially of hard or non-living parts that cannot be reabsorbed like hair and teeth. If they are too developed and she cannot raise them she will eat them. There is a window of time where newborns are at most risk of cannibalism, which is a few days after birth. Once they're moving around and have their eyes open the mother won't cannibalize them.

When they leave their parent's territory they often stick together as sibling groups, watching each other's back, unless solitary. However they eventually begin to compete for potential mates or in the case of females, eventually new nesting territory. Eventually they end up only with their mate.

Other: Like all Furfoots, the Short-eared species have specialised fur on their feet to give them broad traction on loose substrate. Directly beneath their feet it is bristly, coarse, and points down into the sand but at the edges it splays out into softer wisps.

The Short-eared Furfoot is an exclusively beach-dwelling species, specialised for coastal herbs, grasses and importantly fresh seaweeds in the water. Since it is important that they can swim quickly they have short ears that don't drag them back in the water as severely. It's rare for them to enter deep water, usually accidents first and temptation from fresh seaweeds second. However they become so vulnerable to predators that the speed they can get back out of the water has become a selective pressure, with the most held-back and sluggish swimmers more likely to die of predation from a squid, fish or Merg.

They are more fatty than their ancestral rabbits, with most of this additional fat being beneath the skin. This not only helps streamline them but helps prevent drastic drops on body temperature from entering comparatively cool ocean water.

Genus Furfoots:

Furfoots are a small genus of rabbit descendants that are suited for sandy, loose soil habitats. Although not all live at the coast, all at least seasonally visit the coast where seaweeds become available within reach at tide out. They may venture onto rocky or muddy coastal areas, but generally don't live there.