A snuguort was a small animal that resembled a chipmunk. The Ashtarians genetically engineered the animal to perform simple engineering tasks, with excess numbers of the animal being eaten. Snuguorts could breed almost as quickly as tribbles.
In 2370, an Ashtarian ship docked at Deep Space 9. Shula Sereni discovered what the snuguorts were used for and reported her concerns to Jadzia Dax. The Ashtarian ship was heading to the Gamma Quadrant and needed the snuguorts to maintain their warp drive. It was later discovered that snuguorts hecame dangerous when taken out of the environment of the radiation around a warp core, thus freeing them would be detrimental to the animal and anywhere they could be moved to. (DS9 novel: Valhalla)