Nea - Humboldt Viscacha

For the Nea project of Joshua Knüppe: hyrotrioskjan.deviantart.com/


One of the first small mammals that got introduced to Nea was the Northern viscacha, a small rodent from Terra's South America that's part of the Chinchillidae.

Now, several centuries later, these animals have evolved into a new subspecie: the Humboldt viscacha.
The Humboldt viscacha has the same colony lifestyle and size of its Terran precursors (about 30 to 40 centimeters) but has larger, pointier ears and a different colour pattern. Its long tail can still be curled up, but has also a use in communication: when fouraging there are always individuals on watch and spot for danger. When doing this, they stand on a higher, clearly visible lookout and bob their tail up and down, making the white underside of it flash "on and off".
If a predator shows up or something suspicious is noticed, the guards keep their tail upwards, making the white stay visible. Other members of the colony will notice this and do the same, spreading the alarm. Does the predator attack or does the danger comes closer, the guards will ring the bell by making noise, causing their congeners to flee for safety. 
At this point the tail has another purpose: the white colour is a signal for youngsters and other family members to follow so nobody stays behind or runs in the wrong direction.

Humboldt viscachas were introduced to Nea on two locations: first are the mountains East of the Kurnugian Sea, second are the mountains slightly South of the equator. The viscacha depicted here are those from the first population, the other population looks the same with the only difference that the black patterns on their fur are less pronounced.
The population next to the Kurnugian Sea has through the course of time expanded North and can now be found all the way into the lower regions of the Northern forests and grasslands. It seems that in the future they propably will take over these more temperate environments and might evolve into another subspecie. The other population is thought to evolve into another subspecie too since they don't come into contact with the Kurnugian population.