Packrats!
A packrat is caught by the camera just outside the area of the flash.
Around here the term packrat refers specifically to the bushy-tailed wood rat, Neotoma cinerea, a large , nocturnal rodent with a tail more like that of a squirrel than the Norway rat that we associate with cities throughout the world.
Packrats are common residents of the sandstone cliffs around my home although they are generally secretive and usually only come out after dark. I don’t blame them - they are a prey animal for bobcats, lions, fox, coyotes, weasels and most raptors so it is not much wonder they do their best to not be seen.
Most of my images of packrats have been taken by remote camera traps, often at 3 or 4 am when many animals are sound asleep.
A packrat runs along a sandy trail in the middle of the night.
Much more obvious than the animals themselves are their middens. The term originally referred to garbage dumps but it is an accurate description of the collection of sticks, bones, litter, plant material and many other things the packrat drags back to his lair. The actual nest of the rodent is buried within the collection and resembles a cupped bird nest in many respects.
A few months ago I stumbled across a piece of sandstone formation that had fallen apart, exposing the nest of a packrat that apparently abandoned his home after the devastation.
The actual nest is visible on the right side buried within the midden.
Besides the collection of sticks and rocks at the entrance to the rodent’s home, another sure sign of a packrat is the elongated scat often evident at the base of the midden. Packrat pee hardens over time and is sometimes referred to as “packrat amber” because it can be studied to discover remnants of bugs and plants from decades earlier.
Packrat poop evident below the animal’s midden.
Packrats can cause an enormous amount of damage to human homes and vehicles. They love to chew on anything and have been known to cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to electrical systems.
They seem to find our back deck quite interesting and I have captured a number of videos of them exploring at night. The link below will reveal a very short video of two consecutive nights with two distinct male pack rats. The first one is missing part of the fur sheath that covers their tails, possibly a result of a battle with the larger rat pictured in the second part of the video. The males are extremely territorial and solitary if they are not mating.
Although packrats are destructive, they are still one of my favorite neighbors. Many people have never seen one in their lives and may not even realize they are a real animal.
To learn more about this topic, be sure to listen to my podcast by clicking the button below, or by downloading the latest episode from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.