Body dimensions 130–150 mm, tail length 60–70 mm. Coloring of the upper body from ash gray to lighter - grayish-fawn. The tail is lighter than the body, usually monochrome, covered with thick hairs.
It lives on rocky sections of the upper forest and alpine zones of mountainous regions at an altitude of 1000–4700 meters above sea level [3] . The modern range extends from the Castile Mountains on the Iberian Peninsula to the Caucasus Range, Kopetdag and the Zagros Mountains in Iran in the east. During the Late Cenozoic glaciation, they were part of the Wurm lemmming faunas, and the range extended north to the British Isles . Since then, separate isolated areas of the range have remained in central Spain, Italy, Kopetdag, the North Caucasus, including in the Pyatigorye region.
Leads a twilight lifestyle. It feeds on the aerial parts of herbaceous and shrubby plants and berries. Characterized by "feed tables" located under the stones.
