Neorattus vulpes

My first attempt with speculative zoology, settled in the realtively near future, only a few hundred thousand years from now.
A descendant of today's rats, Neorattus vulpes is a fox-sized predator of small animals. It evolved from the brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) of New Zealand in the absence of land predators. It mostly hunts on mice, small birds and reptiles.