Here I am as we work to put the cages into the ground.
The kangaroo rat translocation project has kept our research team hopping this summer (see post
Kangaroo Rats: Our Own Backyard). We conducted our first release of nearly 50 animals in early July. But the temperatures have soared at the Southwestern Riverside Multispecies Reserve in Temecula, California, reaching triple digits almost daily for the last couple of months. While this isn’t unusual, it means that we have had to wait to move our second group of kangaroo rats. With predicted temperatures cooling next week, our team has shifted into high gear.
Here, one of the rangers, Tom, digs 50 holes with his vintage backhoe. Once he finished the holes, our team set the acclimation cages: one cozy new home for each kangaroo rat to be released.
For this next release, we enlisted the help of the reserve manager’s team of highly skilled rangers to prep our next release site on the north shore of Lake Skinner, which included using a backhoe to dig 50 holes. We want the site to be as hospitable to the new residents as possible so that they will choose to stay. Once the holes were dug, our team set the acclimation cages: one cozy new home for each kangaroo rat to be released. The kangaroo rats are held in these cages for about a week to give them time to get used to their new home.
Just after we set these cages, I found this critter trying to get into an acclimation cage. Look out, roorats!
For this next translocation, we want to know whether mountain lion scent will deter coyote predation on the newbies. Release sites with small mammals can be a feeding frenzy for medium sized predators like coyotes, badgers, foxes, and weasels. Electric fences are often used without success to deter these predators. Translocation biologists need a way to keep medium-sized predators off, and the “north shore gang,” a group of rambunctious coyotes known to destroy all researchers’ projects, inhabit the area where we plan to release our kangaroo rats.
Debra Shier is a Brown Endowed Scientist at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Here’s more information about her project.
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October 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
so they are not rats, rodents..more like squirrels..anyways what are they to us in our eco system?? you want them to multiply for food for medium predators? …I just want to know more about this research
October 12th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Hi Lid.
Great question! It’s one that I’m always happy to answer. Kangaroo rats are more closely related to squirrels and gophers than to mice and rats. They play a critical role in the ecosystems in which they live. They are primary seed dispersers of the native plants, they dig burrows which provide shelter for lizards, snakes, frogs and insects and through their digging the increase soil hydrology and nutrient cycling. As you suggest, they play an important role as a food resource for many medium sized predators including: owls, snakes, foxes, coyotes, weasles etc. It is for these reasons that they are considered keystone species and “ecosystem engineers”. Essentially this means that they are creating and modifying habitat and are critical for a healthy ecosystem in the areas where they have evolved.
October 14th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
This is reallly interesting! Hope you will update us on all of the latest developments. Has the mountain lion scent worked to deter the coyotes?