Precious face

This little Hammie has the cutest expression on it's face. Like it's saying "You have a food maybe?" or "Are you still loving me?"

On Top of The World.

Jane Goodall holds a Giant Pouch Rat

Jane Goodall with African Giant Pouch Rat...

This picture comes from an article and slide show at AnimalPlanet.com about the African Giant Pouch Rats that are helping clean out bombs and landmines.

Here is the link to the article and slide show:

http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/janegoodall/animalstalk/
photogallery/photogallery_09.html

Indiant Giant Squirrel.

What a beautiful Squirrel. I've never even heard of an Indian Giant Squirrel, i just love the tri-coloring on this Squirrel.

Also the photographer who took this photo does wonderful photography. I did a spotlight of his/her work on 'Wonderful World of Animals' so if you'd like to see this photographers other work go to WWA- Http://wonderfulworldofanimals.blogspot.com

Cute Guinea Pig pic

This was just to cute to pass up

Cute Degu Page

Degu's are adorable and hear they make pretty good pets. Someone on one of the rat groups i belong to had a pet Degu but i can't remember who.. but, they said that their Degu made a great pet.

I found this cute Degu page and thought I'd pass it on: http://cutest.rodent.ever.com/?skip_login=1&sess_id=b378104293a464a9b73c41a58822f191

Handful of Rodents.

I thought this was a great photo. There was no information with the photo so i don't know what species they are, maybe some sort of Chipmunk. The title of the photo is "Handful of Rodents" And it's by- Della Stock and it was on Deviantart.com

New Feature- what am i doing.

I added a silly little widget to 3 of my blogs. It's Basically it just tells you what i am doing right now. You can see it lower down the the page- Scroll down and look to the right. When i want you to know what i am doing I'll updated it. LoL, it's kinda silly but fun.

Cute Blog.

If you like to look at other blogs that are animal or rodent related like myself, here is a cute litle blog. It has other animals on it but it also has Rodents. I thought I'd share it with you.

http://weelittlebeasties.blogspot.com/

Species of the day- Pika

Update: The Pika is our species of the day. I was doing Species of the day over at wonderful world of rats but i thought rodent species of the day would be better of here, so you will find that feature on WWRodents now.
Here is some info on the Pika: The name pika (archaically spelled pica) is used for any member of the Ochotonidae, a family within the order of lagomorphs, which also includes the Leporidae (rabbits and hares). One genus, Ochotona, is recognised within the family, and it includes 30 species. Pikas are also called rock rabbits or coneys. It is also known as the "whistling hare" due to its high-pitched alarm call when diving into its burrow. The pika may look like a hamster, but is actually a cousin of the rabbit. The name "pika" appears to be derived from the Tungus "piika", or perhaps from the Russian "pikat", to squeak. In the United States the pronunciation of the name is usually altered from /pika/ to /'paɪ·ka/, probably due to the spelling^{[citation needed]}. Habitat

Pikas are native to cold climates, mostly in Asia, North America and parts of eastern Europe. Most species live on rocky mountain sides, where there are numerous crevices to shelter in, although some also construct crude burrows. A few burrowing species are instead native to open steppe land. In the mountains of Eurasia, pikas often share their burrows with snowfinches, which build their nests there^[3].

In a January 2006 article in the Journal of Biogeography, archeologist Donald Grayson warned that human activity and global climate change appeared to be pushing the American pika population to ever-higher elevations and thus possibly toward extinction. Grayson studied pika habitation over the past 40,000 years in the region between the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) and Rocky Mountains. An earlier Journal of Mammalogy article reached a similar conclusion.

Characteristics

Pikas are small hamster-like animals, with short limbs, rounded ears, and short tails. They are about 18-20 cm in body length, with a tail less than 2 cm long, and weigh between 75 and 290 grams, depending on species. Like rabbits, after eating they initially produce soft green feces, which they eat again to extract further nutrition, before producing the final, solid, fecal pellets.

These animals are herbivores, and feed on a wide variety of plant matter. Because of their native habitat, they primarily eat grasses, sedges, shrub twigs, moss, and lichen.

Rock-dwelling pikas have small litters of less than five young, while the burrowing species tend to give birth to more young, and to breed more frequently, possibly due to a greater availability of resources in their native habitats. The young are born after a gestation period of between 25 and 30 days^[3].

Activity

Pikas are diurnal or crepuscular, with higher altitude species generally being more active during the daytime. They show their peak activity before the winter season. Pikas do not hibernate, so they rely on collected hay for warm bedding and food. Pikas gather fresh grasses and lay them in stacks to dry. Once the grasses dry out, the pikas take this hay back to the burrows for storage. It is not uncommon for pikas to steal hay from others; the resulting disputes are usually exploited by neighboring predators like ferrets and large birds.

Eurasian pikas commonly live in family groups and share duties of gathering food and keeping watch. At least some species are territorial. North American pikas (O. princeps and O. collaris) are asocial, leading solitary lives outside the breeding season.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Lagomorpha
Family:	Ochotonidae Thomas, 1897
Genus:	Ochotona Link, 1795

On a personal note.. Pika's are one of my favorite rodents. They are just too cute for words!

Oh my, What big ears you have

Adorable photo of a Jerboa.

Adorable Dormouse.

I got these adroable pictures of a Dormouse on Cute Overload (CuteOverload.com).

There was some info about this Dormouse with the pictures. It said;

'The UK Daily Mail' is reporting "That this anerable dormouse had to fatten up before going into hibernation mode [zzzzzzz] So rescue workers worked feverishly to stuff him full of delectabuhl ivy pollen and blackberries".

And "For some reason he also lives in a coconut apartment. "Dozey" is now sleeping peacefully and will wake up refreshed in April. I bet he'll have the tiniest of beards then."



I don't know to much about the Dormouse so i dug up some info from Wikipedia:

Dormice are rodents of the family Gliridae. (This family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are mostly found in Europe, although some live in Africa and Asia. They are particularly known for their long periods of hibernation.

Dormice are small for rodents, with a body length of between 6 and 19 centimetres (2.5 - 7.5 inches), and weighing between 15 and 200 grams. They are generally mouse-like in appearance, but with furred, rather than scaly, tails. They are largely but not exclusively arboreal animals, and are agile and well adapted to climbing. Most species are nocturnal. Dormice have an excellent sense of hearing, and signal each other with a range of different vocalisations^[1].

Dormice are omnivorous, typically feeding on fruits, berries, flowers, nuts and insects. Dormice are unique among rodents in that they lack a cecum, a part of the gut used in other species to ferment vegetable matter. Their dental formulasquirrels, although they often lack premolars: is similar to that of

Dormice breed once or twice a year, producing litters with an average of four young after a gestation period of 21-32 days. They can live for as long as five years. The young are born hairless, and helpless, and their eyes do not open until about eighteen days after birth. They typically become sexually mature after the end of their first hibernation. Dormice live in small family groups, with home ranges that vary widely between species, and depending on the availability of food^[1].

One of the most notable characteristics of those dormice that live in temperatehibernation. Dormice can hibernate six months out of the year, or even longer if the weather remains sufficiently cool, sometimes waking for brief periods to eat food they had previously stored nearby. During the summer, they accumulate fat in their bodies, to nourish them through the hibernation period^[1]. zones is

It is from this trait that they got their name, which comes from Anglo-Normandormeus, which means "sleepy (one)"; the word was later altered by folk etymology to resemble the word "mouse". The sleepy behaviour of the Dormouse character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland also attests to this trait.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Sciuromorpha
Family:	Gliridae