Sousliks have sandy-brown fur to match the dry grasses they live in. They stand up on their back legs to look around, and if they spot a hawk, fox or stray dog, they whistle a loud warning. The whole colony hears it and dives into their burrows in a flash.
Their burrows are amazing pieces of engineering. Each souslik digs a long tunnel with several rooms - a bedroom, a food store and an emergency back door. They line their bedroom with dry grass to make it cosy, and they keep it spotlessly tidy.
Sousliks hibernate through the winter. Around October, each one curls into a tight ball deep in its burrow, slows its heart right down, and sleeps for around six months. When it finally wakes up in March, it is very, very hungry - and very, very thin.
Sousliks are food for many bigger animals: foxes, eagles, weasels and snakes. That makes them very important to the meadow ecosystem. If sousliks disappear from a meadow, lots of other animals struggle. Protecting them helps protect the whole grassland.