Posted at 4:00 pm October 19, 2009 by Debra Shier
A Stephen's kangaroo rat sporting a tiny transmitter.
Last week we released the second group of 50 kangaroo rats (see previous post,
Kangaroo Rats Keep Us Hopping). We placed sand scented with mountain lion pee at scent stations for 25 of them. The other 25 were among sand piles wet with water. We are using remote cameras to take still and video images of any predators that visit the site.
Graduate student Liv Baker pulls one of the top cages off and frees the roo rat inside.
Immediately after release, animals began visiting their neighbors. They were moved with familiar neighbors to facilitate settlement and survival. Stay tuned to see what creatures we capture with the remote cameras! And, to find out what is happening with our third and final group of animals for the year.
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 19th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I don’t like rats..but they are cute looking! I cannot wait to see pics of creatures that posed for y’all
October 20th, 2009 at 12:13 am
Doesn’t the mountain lion pee frighten the roo rats?!! I know if that was me, I’d be running in the opposite direction! I love their gorgeous eyes.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
What a great project! And you guys are pretty brave to be out there in the dead of night… I hope the K-rats live long and happy lives out there, and find their way to bunch grass and seeds.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
This may not be the right place to ask, but at least we get MOST of the answers, How do the wild animals (bob cats, mountain lions, deer etc) know how to get to the other side of the freeway or highway underpass? I know there are cameras for night passing, but how do they know how to get to the “river” on the other side of the highway??
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Are there any plans to exhibit a colony of these cute little guys at the WAP or ZOO? We love watching the kangaroo rats in Borrego (don’t know what kind they are); they are so busy!
October 26th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Did I miss something here? People released endangered species and then attracted predators to the same site? Isn’t that kinda like deciding to raise chickens in a fox cage?
October 31st, 2009 at 1:45 pm
#6 Richard…From a previous blog post about this project, the mountain lion scent is meant to deter predators such as coyotes, etc.
Debra, would it be correct to assume that mountain lions are not indigenous to the area in which the kangaroo rats are being released?
Thanks for keeping us updated about the progress of your project!
November 7th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I am anxious to see what other animals were caught on the cameras.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Hi Melissa,
Mountain lions are indigenous to the area and that is why using their scent to deter coyotes may work. The data are still out, but we have some great photos from the predators that have been visiting!
November 12th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Thanks for your interest and great questions!
Susan and Richard, mountain lions don’t prey on kangaroo rats, they are too small to be worth hunting for a large cat. And, some encouraging data that are coming in shows that the kangaroo rats are digging their burrows right next to the scent piles, suggesting that they are not “scared” of the mountain lion pee. Perhaps they are using it to their advantage. If it really deters medium-sized predators, having your home next to it might not be such a bad idea!
Claudia, regarding your question about mountain lions finding their way under highways, I’m not a mountain lion biologist, but I suspect that they will learn the layout in the altered landscape through trial and error or associative learning. The complications arise when the habitat is highly fragmented.
Marilyn, we’ve talked about exhibiting kangaroo rats or pocket mice at the Wild Animal Park, but to be interesting to a visitor, we would need a nocturnal house. Otherwise, they would be asleep during the visiting hours. This could happen in the future, but there are currently no plans for it at this time. Depending on the size, you are probably seeing either the desert kangaroo rat (one of the largest at ~120 grams) or Merriam’s kangaroo rat (around 40 grams) at Anza-Borrego.
November 14th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Oh thanks for the answer, I have traveled the 133 and 73, and caught an article in the paper some time ago about several Bob Cat deaths on the highway. If you live near an open area, you can see little “trails” sweeping down the hill sides and I assume a critter tried to climb down, or up, the side. and they must see the open drain channel “tube” or “pipe” so they know where to go. interesting and someplace I saw pics of animals, deer, caught in the night cameras… one way they track what kind of animals go there…..interesting.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Please keep us posted on how all this is working out, Debra. What types of predators have you found in your camera shots other than coyotes?