# some of my wild rodents, etc.



## gyri (Nov 20, 2012)

A few days ago I made the comment that most of my experience prior to this summer dealing with mice has been studying populations of wild mice. I thought I'd take a moment to share some of the photos I have taken of rodents, and a couple other mammals, in the wild.

I see a LOT of porcupines in my day to day life. Its almost ridiculous. This one, after finishing off the surface of the table tennis setup in my front yard, decided to start eating my screen door between the hours of 10 and 2 almost every night. Not technically a research thing, but I think Porcupines are kind of adorable.









While doing snake research up north I typically encountered at least 1 porcupine a day and in the late spring and early summer it was routine to stumble across a baby porcupine at least once a week. This has got to be the youngest I have ever seen. Unlike mice, porcupines are born with hair (but not quills). I think they look sort of like shaggy guinea pigs. Observe the after birth laying next to it...









For a while I was TAing a field methods class for wildlife biology students. One of the objectives was to teach students how to live-trap rodents to estimate population size using a method called "mark-recapture". The goal was to capture several species of mice but its hard to control what exactly strolls into the traps and sometimes you catch some pretty cool stuff, ie: flying squirrels. Keep in mind that wild rodents can't be handled the way captive mice can. You gotta scruff them or get bit real bad.









After releasing him, he scrambled up a tree, glided to a sapling, and glared at us for a while.









Most of the time you just catch mice though, such as this deer or field mouse (I can't recall which this one was exactly, they are impossible to tell apart based on external features).









And another









Sometimes when you release them, rather than dart back to their home, they scramble up a tree for some reason.


















Or up a person.









Ok, bats aren't rodents, not even close, but they are small mammals and I just freaking love them!


















PS. Raccoons are freaking cute!









I've got lots more mammals stuff hidden away somewhere but that's all for now. Cheers!


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## ThatCertainGlow (Jun 23, 2012)

Thanks for sharing.  From the title I almost didn't want to see, but then I thought, wait, perhaps they are wild, and in the WILD...hmmm. lol Glad I looked.

-Zanne


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

fab pics you are so lucky


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## gyri (Nov 20, 2012)

ThatCertainGlow said:


> Thanks for sharing.  From the title I almost didn't want to see, but then I thought, wait, perhaps they are wild, and in the WILD...hmmm. lol Glad I looked.
> 
> -Zanne


Haha, didn't think about that. Wild animals should stay wild, in my opinion. I think there are cases where it is justified to bring certain animals into captivity but mammals especially do not transition well. They should be enjoyed for what they are: wild animals.


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## sys15 (Nov 26, 2011)

many wild rodents adapt very well to captivity and make fascinating captives.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Great photos, thanks for sharing  I'm looking forward to the next installment!


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

i LOVE porcupines! i want an african crested one but work wont let me keep one there so i cant 

That racoon pic is loverly and along with the flying squirel pic are my favs


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

You have too much fun. :mrgreen:

Ever scruff a woodchuck? I brought one home in a gunny sack to show my dad when I was about 12.


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## gyri (Nov 20, 2012)

moustress said:


> You have too much fun. :mrgreen:
> 
> Ever scruff a woodchuck? I brought one home in a gunny sack to show my dad when I was about 12.


Haha, no I have not. I did scruff a prairie dog when I was a kid though. One of my friends had one that his family had acquired as a pet back before they were protected under the endangered species act. Since they'd had it before it was illegal they were allowed to keep it under the grandfather clause or something like that. Cute little bugger, his name was Herman.

I stepped on that first porcupine one night. I got home late one night and had forgot to leave the porch light on. As I blindly walked to the door I walked smack into him. That's actually right before I took that picture. Once I got the door open I turned the light on to see what the heck I'd walked into and found him hiding behind a folded chair next to the door, lol.


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## The28thMouse (Jan 5, 2013)

Wow thank you for sharing. Awesome photos!


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## besty74 (May 26, 2012)

fantastic photos


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## Seafolly (Mar 13, 2012)

Oh that takes me back! I did a field course revolving around alpine plants but I found myself hiking up mountains to scruff and record data on wild mice too.  It's quite the experience, I'm envious you had a variety of animals to play with!


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