Aha! The Rodent mystery is solved (I think)

There have been a lot of tracks about in the powdery snow.

I've been deeply suspicious about some tracks. I know what mice tracks look like. Little toes, teeny feet. The deer mice tracks from step-to-step are about 2" apart.
I consulted my sources, various guides. Reviewed previous posts/photos: Tracks in the snow. These were different.

There was a dragging tail, which is typical of a mouse in snow, but the feet were larger than mice. I haven't see these tracks too often. Not until recently, with the terrible cold we've had: The Polar Vortex. It's been around under the bird feeder.

Rodentia

tracks with a tail
–much larger than
a mouse
The tracks are 8" apart.

We have a lot of rodents about. Rodents are characterized by constantly growing incisors. The single largest group of mammals >is Rodentia. Most non-flying mammals are rodents: there are about 1,500 living rodent species (out of about 4,000 living mammals overall).

This is a large and varied species: according to uBerkeley,

• the larger family includes common pets: guinea, muskrats, chinchillas, porcupines, lemmings, deermice, field mice, voles and packrats,  
• but excludes shrews, moles, hegehogs, rabbits (double incisors).

Most are herbivores.
Lots carry disease, like Hantavirus.
A lot of these are diurnal, we see deermice in the daytime all the time, but see evidence of their tracks from the night, and safety, of the dark.

Capybara - largest rodent

Vole (larger than deer mouse).

Shrew
Love the little toes!

The largest rodent, Capybara, I happen to have a photo of one, from the Lynwood Fun Fair. They can be 66 kilos!

Deermouse

Back to my critter, which is nocturnal.

Packrats or Woodrats

Woodrat - from Wiki

I've heard of packrats, vaguely. My mother always accused me of being one! And she was right. You never know when you need stuff for crafts!

After doing some research, there seems to be quite a few varieties of woodrats; Eastern Woodrat  ( Neotoma floridana >) a Key Largo Woodrat, Allegheny woodrat, Bushy-tailed woodrat, or Packrat. Bushy-tailed Woodrat - Neotoma cinerea, The Allegheny woodrat ( Neotoma magister ), is a species of " pack rat >" in the genus Neotoma . Once believed to be a subspecies of the eastern woodrat , extensive DNA analysis has proven it to be a distinct species. ^[2]

The rats that infest cities are called Norway rats. (Our soon-to-be D-I-L's cat caught and ate one a few years ago in Vancouver.)

woodrat Wiki

Woodrat house - used with permission
Kim Cabrera

Woodrats build really cool homes (see: Kim A. Cabrera's web page: out of sticks and shiny things. This is why they are called packrats!

I shall have to have a look out for this type of shelter in our forest/wetland, it's great habitat for them. The previous homeowners stacked brush in the forest to clear paths. They might be a house! They build bulky nests of stick, towers that can be 5' tall.

They are anywhere from 28cm - 45cm (11 - 18"), including the tail, near as I can figure.

The mystery of this critter is that something has been in the shed, gnawing and removing the garbage can lid. Several times now, I'd thought I'd forgotten to replace the lid.
I've checked for holes in the shed, but the snow is up around it and I needed snowshoes. I grabbed snowshoes, and couldn't see any entrance in.

Identifying tracks

There are lots of things to determine: the length of the track, size of the tracks, my hand span is 8", which would fit with a woodrat.

 

Lots of track aids. This one includes Eastern woodrats!
Beside my thumb: 4" - 6" from the top set of prints to the last paw. Yep.

Time to link up with Saturday's Critter party....  
and 

Camera Critters #310

Evidence in the shed

I've seen chew marks on the handles, and I'm now sure I put it on after I filled the bird feeder the other day.
I cannot imagine how a woodrat pried the lid off, but it must have!
There are tons of black sunflower seed hulls on the floor, and something has eaten a lot more than would fit into a mouse tummy!

Their scat is quite different, too.

just for comparison

This is not how I left this garbage can,
filled with yummy black sunflower seed!

sharp teeth!

Determined little twerps!

The key to the mystery is the scat.
The black, rice-like ones are mice.
The larger, beige ones have
to be a larger woodrat.

♪♫♩God Sees the LIttle Sparrow Fall

God sees the little sparrow fall, ♪♫♩

Camera Critters #220

It meets God's tender view;
If God so loves the little birds,
I know God loves me, too

An old song from my former church choir days, me in the front row in the sopranos, with my Mom singing alto. Dad in the back row singing tenor.
I thought of it when I heard this bird singing. One of my Mom's favourites! I think of her every time I hear this bird sing.



This song sparrow landed on my giraffelope. This is a critter I made from branches, a dead tree trunk, and a piece of cedar for its head.
It was difficult taping into the sun, I couldn't see the bird, but I could capture its song. What a delightful songbird! I inserted the images of the song sparrow as my video work was iffy!!!

Another Wood Frog in my pond!

Many critters around these days. I love them all!

A wee, new Wood Frog
-its size: so tiny!

They are beautifully coloured!

Can you see it? The boys were hunting it.

A young Shrew, squeaking for mercy!
I put it in another garden, where the boys couldn't find it.

Sadie guards her backyard!
You can't see it, 
but the tree frog lives in the planter!
It climb up the Hops vine in the night!

My feline black twins

The late Oliver, and sister, Sadie, 2009

I love them, my 'twins'. Born March 31st, 2011, they are about 10 months old.
We adopted them from a post on OVFreecycle.

 They play and sleep well together, but don't eat together. Between the three cats fighting for food- we have to throw out the food in 3 dishes, and put them strategically on floor and counter.

We have to feed them apart. Felix weighs less, Buster weighs more but lets Felix push him out of the way. Sadie, their big sister, nudges them both out of the dishes!
We feed Felix on the counter, which is crazy, but we have to. They love being up high.
Our spray bottle of water is still effective. When they jump up on the counter, hunting for leftovers, we spray
them with water. They learned quickly and now we just lift the bottle and they'll jump off the counters. Sigh.

Me, too?

I read an article in our EMC paper from our Lanark Animal Welfare Society (LAWS), our visit and photos are here, that spoke of black cats having different personalities than cats of different colours. I began to research it.

I popped him up!

Stubborn, independent, willful, but also friendly, outgoing, affectionate with us. Buster is the one who teases sister, Sadie. He'll give her a whack on the way by. She'll sit on top of the chair, he'll jump up and playfully whack at her. Felix isn't so brave!
Buster herds the turkeys in the backyard, as they look for scraps under the feeder. He herds them, splitting the flock, and driving them away from HIS tree, where he hunts for the red squirrel.

In 1973, the following traits were linked to colours in a book called "Your Guide to Cats & Kittens" by Pedigree Petfoods. Short-haired black cats: Clown-like delight in "entertaining its owner with gymnastic tricks and enthusiastic affection".

Can we play? Poor wee Batman!

They play fight, stop to clean a paw,
not necessarily their own, and fall asleep.

(Cats and Cat Care Retrospective - 1960s & 1970s)

Felix atop the new caterpillar!

The black coat was likely the first colour mutation of the wild tabby-patterned that were the ancestors of today's domestic cats. I've found our black cats easy to spot on the snow, but likely, indoors, to sit on my black purse, or other dark objects on the floor. Once they close their eyes, they disappear!

They like cuddling, but only after playful games. We have a lot of toys to wear them out!

Buster watches Reddy

In an article that appeared in the March, 2003 issue of NewScientist, “Black cats may be the more fortunate felines.” Research showed that ebony felines may have a health advantage over other cats. The gene for melanism, which makes their fur black, may be able to prevent certain viruses or bacteria from entering their cells, making them more resistant to disease than cats with lighter-colored coats.

Buster on top of the china cabinet

Genetics are interesting! "Blotched tabby and black are both caused by recessive genes. Two black cats will beget more black cats." Buster has an underlying dark brown tabby colouring in the sun. Felix, with longer fur, seems more black! He's also the one who likes to cross the highway to look for mice friends.

Also, I've read, Black cats less likely to be adopted at shelters! 

I've made videos of my boys:
 Kittens in castle, shows their playfulness; KITTENS in the swamp, as my boys liked to play in the wetland, and didn't realize that the floating water lily leaves weren't able to hold their weight! I had to wash them off in the bathtub, as they smelled pretty swampy!

Cat and mouse standoff

Buster caught a mouse out in our backyard. Sadie was watching carefully, non-pussed. 

The brothers argued about a mouse one of them caught. They don't hesitate to steal one another's captures! 
I made a collage of their antics:

CLick here for more camera critters! #200

How to tenderize a shrew!

How to tenderize a mouse, mole, vole, shrew

Buster

Buster and Felix are my bookends. Twins, they often share toys, but not food.

They shared a catnip ball with my hospice client's cat, Wanda, who was quite excited about it. She slept with her head on it, like a pillow!

Wanda was named for her late aunt,
who is also memorialized by a tattoo!

Felix, the smaller of the two, eats first. Buster seems to be the hunter and the tree climber. He'll eat later.

Felix

I thought, at first, Felix had a mouse, probably not a  deer mouse. I looked more closely and thought: a mole. With a bit more research I found it is a shrew, or shrew mouse (family Soricidae).

Shrews are related more closely to mice than voles.

Read more: American Least Shrew: Soricidae, cryptotis parva.

Northern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina brevicauda)

The mole is mainly a carnivore, whereas the vole is a primarily a vegetarian. Shrews are not picky eaters. While insects and other invertebrates (animals without backbones) make up the bulk of their diet, they will also eat fruit and seeds, as well as small mammals, lizards, frogs, and even other shrews if food is scarce.

My kittens are omnivores. They'll eat anything!



For more Camera Critters, #184!