Archivos de Diario para septiembre 2012

miércoles, 19 de septiembre de 2012

RATS!

I have, generally, several large snap-traps always set and baited in a storage area under one part of the house. We get a variety of rodents traveling through in search of their own little nesting area which I don't want to be under my dining room. Part of my daily ritual is to go out and check the traps and lately there has been little activity except for sprung and empty ones that I rebait and reset.

This morning the small mouse trap had been sprung so that was reset and I wandered down to the raised vegetable beds. Before I got there I came across a half-eaten (top half) Dusky-footed Wood Rat with the intestines carefully off to the side. A Banana Slug was attending to the feast, something I had not observed before.

A last note: 3-4 weeks ago near one of the big traps was a mass of something. It was obviously animal in nature and then I saw a bit of rat tail. It took me a minute or two to realize that what I was looking at was the inner lining of the skin. The rat had been skinned literally by turning the body inside out but now there was no body left, only inside-out skin and fur. I even found the skull which had much of the fur removed. What might have done this?? Possibly a raccoon, finding the rat in the trap, and taking the opportunity for an easy meal?

Publicado el miércoles, 19 de septiembre de 2012 a las 10:06 PM por bob-dodge bob-dodge | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario