A bushy-tailed wood rat's tale

[Pretty damn cute for a rat, wouldn't you say?]

As I am sure you all know, I have a fondness for our native wood rats.

And for the last year have been on a dogged if desultory quest to camera trap the Prince of Wood Rats -- Neotoma cinerea -- the bushy-tailed one.

To date I have failed, which is more than a little embarrassing.

As a reasonably fit though aging mammalogist I should be able to nail this species with my cams -- and with little effort. 

Well, Saturday night I got a call from the daughter of a childhood friend.

She lives in Utah at 6000', near a reservoir, and something was making a nest in her garage.

The animal control officer told her the intruder was probably a muskrat. 

[Okay, it's not bushy by squirrel standards, but it's a lovely tail for a rat.]

Ahem!

I begged to differ, predicted the identity of the intruder, and advised her on baits.

They caught the little bugger and here's the story and photos, which I am grateful for permission to use and quote. 

"Dear Dad, Mom, and Dr. Wemmer,
Thank you so much for your advice. Our Bushy Tailed Wood Rat ( if that is indeed what he is) was trapped a few minutes before midnight last night using your suggestion, Dr Wemmer, of oatmeal and peanut butter.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any sunflower seeds, but the rat didn't seem to mind.  What a cute creature. He looks very much like a humongous hamster with a fluffy tail.  I didn't think to hold a ruler up to the cage, but the body length was a good 6 inches or so, and the tail about the same length. I have attached the photographs we took that turned out.  Unfortunately we have none without the cage, since this animal was just amazingly fast.  Much faster than my camera.

The kids named it Bob in honor of one of Sandra Boyton's songs. Turns out they were right about him being a male.  He certainly has boy parts.

Since we also weren't up to traipsing around a strange wood in the dark in order to release him, Bob camped out in the cage in the garage overnight.  He was a well cared for rat, with the cat's water bottle from their traveling kennel hooked to the cage and the lid full of peanut butter and oatmeal.  Wayne even wrapped the cage in old towels since the kids were concerned Bob would get too cold in the garage overnight. They didn't want to find a body in the morning instead of a healthy rodent.  However, Bob survived his night of captivity just fine. And while he didn't like us picking up the cage to transport him, he was quite content with his oatmeal peanut butter.      

Once we had the ok from the Sheriff's office today, Wayne took Bob down to the nature preserve suggested by our local animal control officer and released him. Apparently bushy tailed wood rats are considered a protected species in this area, so we had absolutely no trouble getting the approval to release him back into the wild.  He took off like a rocket once he realized the cage was open. The preserve is almost 9 miles away, so we are hoping that we took Bob far enough for him to be unable to find his way back to our garage.  Thankfully, he didn't do any damage to anything in the garage, and while it wasn't fun to clean up after him it was a pretty easy task.  We just have our fingers crossed that the wildlife stays down at the reservoir from now on, where we can watch them in their own habitat.

Thank you again Mom and Dad for suggesting Dr. Wemmer as a source of information.  And thank you so very much, Dr Wemmer, for helping us catch our visitor in as humane a fashion as possible.  We greatly appreciate your advice and willingness to coach us.  Thank you again.

-Erika