Creature Feature #367: Kangaroo Rat

The Kangaroo Rat of North America is named for his method of locomotion. His long legs resemble those of a kangaroo, and help to propel him through his desert home. He is capable of leaps of over 2 metres, quickly changing direction between jumps. He is primarily a seed eater, caching the excess for leaner times. During the day he resides in his burrow, even plugging the entrance with dirt against the heat and to maintain humidity.   These burrows are complex, with chambers for sleeping, living and food storage. He lives alone, coming into contact with others for feeding and breeding.

Creature Feature #360: Jumping Rat

The Jumping Rat is more commonly known as the Malagasy Giant Rat. She is a large rodent, growing to around 33 cm in length, not including her tail. With her long, muscular back legs she is capable of making leaps almost 1m high. She is completely nocturnal, spending her days within a burrow she shares with her life-long mate. This can have as many as 6 entrances, allowing her ample choice of escape route. At night she ventures out to feast on fallen fruits, nuts and invertebrates which she digs for.

Creature Feature #327: Hutia

The Hutia are large cavy-like rodents of South America. There have been 20 species identified, of which a full third are extinct and almost all the remaining species are endangered. The exception to this is Demarest's Hutia of Cuba. He is widespread throughout his range, and was once hunted for food and even raised as a stock animal. In some areas he is still abundant enough to be considered a pest and can cause damage to crops. His diet is omnivorous, consisting of bark, leaves and fruit with the occasional small vertebrate. Unlike many reodents he does not burrow, but spends the nights sleeping in tree hollows or rock crevices. You ng are born fully furred and with open eyes.

Creature Feature #300: Hamster

The Hamsters are a group of small rodents characterised by their short tails and elongated cheek pouches. Their behaviour is crepuscular - they remain underground during the day and venture out in the evenings and mornings to forage for seeds, fruit, vegetation and insects. Food is stored in their cheek pouches, which can double, or triple, in size and hoarded in underground food chambers. Hamsters lead a solitary lifestyle, although some species will live in pairs. Hamsters, particularly the Syrian Hamster, have become popular in the pet industry, and have been bred with unusual colourations and longer fur. They do not tolerate colony living and are most active at night.

Creature Feature #169: Dormouse

The Dormice are a Family of small rodents spread across Europe, Africa and Asia, although the name is most commonly used to refer to this little critter - the Hazel Dormouse. She is nocturnal and spends her nights clambering through branches in search of fruits, berries, flowers and hazelnuts. Her existence is almost entirely arboreal and she will rarely, if ever, come to ground and will make detours to avoid having to descend. During the days she sleeps in a nest woven from honeysuckle bark, leaves and grasses. If the weather is cold and wet, she will sink into a deep sleep - a torpor, to save energy. In this manner she also hibernates through winter, thus spending a decent proportion of her life asleep (as illustrated in the book Alice in Wonderland)

Creature Feature #155: Degu

The Degu is a small rodent who makes her home in the semi-arid regions of Chile. She is related to the Chinchilla and the Cavy (guinea pig). A very social creature, living in a communually dug system of burrows. She is even known to share her nest and babies with other females. Much of her day is spent on the surface, where she scrambles amongst the rocks in search of tasty plant matter. The colony keep in contact with one another using an array of vocal signals. Due to her inability to process free sugars, the Degu has been used in studies of diabetes. She has also been used to study the effects of separation anxiety (Degu pups separated too long from their mother develop something akin to ADHD) and Alzheimers.

Creature Feature #109: Cloud Rat

Cloud Rats are also known as Cloudrunners, and they are large rat-like rodents found in the Philippines. Here they lead an arboreal existence, following a vegetarian diet of fruits, shoots, leaves and seeds. This fellow is the Northern Luzon slender-tailed cloud rat and his kind have been successfully bred in captivity, and have also started to enter into the exotic pet trade. He is relatively common on the island of Luzon, where he makes his home both in lowland rain and montane forest, but has also been found on cultivated land - provided there is a plentiful supply of food. Despite this, little is known about these attractive rodents and much of their lifestyle remains a mystery.

Creature Feature #101: Chipmunk

This diminutive rodent makes her home in North America, with one species found in Asia. She follows an omnivorous diet, favouring seeds, nuts, roots and buds but also consuming insects, arthropods, small frogs and birds' eggs. In autumn she begins to collect non-perishable foods in preparation for winter. These are carried in cheek pouches and deposited into her burrow. The burrows are complex affairs, with several well-concealed entrances and a separate larder.  Here she remains for the long, cold months. Some species, like the eastern, hibernate for this period. Although extremely quick and alert while awake, chipmunks spend up to fifteen hours a day sleeping.

Creature Feature #100: Chinchilla

The Chinchilla may have found international popularity as a pet, but in her native home, the Andes, she perches on the edge of extinction. This charming rodent lives in a social group, known as a herd, and can breed at any time of the year. The gestation period is 111 days, longer than most rodents, and the babies are born fully furred. She is most active at dawn and dusk, coming out of her daytime burrow to dine on plants, roots, seeds and insects. Here she is under threat from snakes, owls, foxes and other carnivores, but the biggest threat has been human kind. Chinchilla have a plush pelt - ideal for their alpine habitat - that has proved popular in the fur industry. It takes 150 chinchilla to make one fur coat. They are still farmed, and illegally hunted, for this purpose today.

Creature Feature #80: Capybara

The largest living rodent, the Capybara makes her home near water in most of South America. She is semi-aquatic, and has partially webbed feet. Her nostrils too, are high on her head, allowing her to fully submerge except for her eyes, nose and ears. Indeed, she can even sleep in the water. Highly gregarious, she lives in herds with other females, juveniles and several adult males. Together they selectively graze the forest, grassland and water plants.

Creature Feature #7: Agouti

The Agouti is a rodent, living in South America and noted for being rather shy. The Azara Agouti is considered a jungle gardener, as it often buries seeds and forgets where, so that they sprout.

Chinchilla!

This cute wee chap was made for my friend's birthday.She loves chinchillas, and who couldn't love a face like that, really?

Chinchillas are a rodent native to the Andes, where two species occur. Although domesticated forms exist - taken from the long-tailed chinchilla breed, both species are critically endangered in their wild habitat. They live in burrows and crevices, come out at night and have thick fur to cope with their cooler environment. If temperatures exceed 25 degrees they start to suffer, and they cannot sweat, instead they dissipiate heat through their large pink ears. Their pelts are greatly desirable in the fur trade and it takes 150 chinchilla to make one coat. I'd rather these beautiful creatures keep their fur!

Now...

Expect to see more art soon.
Lots of Art.
I have made more in the month of July than in the rest of the year - COMBINED.

Alas, a couple of months ago I was tying a plastic bag of rubbish closed, and suddenly felt a stab of pain through my hand. It was briefly very intense, quickly dulling down to a painful throb and for the rest of the day my right hand felt like a claw. I could still use it, but it hurt to do too much fine work with it. Over the next few days the pain gradually receeded, and now I can sketch and ink without pain, however I have discovered that when I engage in intense colouring (such as for large images) it cramps up and the third knuckle seems to swell a little. I did ask my doctor about it, but by the time I went the pain had decided to absent itself, only to flare up again later. So now, like my gammy right knee, I now have a gammy middle finger.

Working on small pieces - ie: anything 6x4 or less, doesn't seem to affect it greatly. Still, best to take things slowly and look after it. This piece above caused it to cramp up rather unpleasantly. *sighs*