Lady Prunus +1

As part of the "getting to know you" phase with a pair of new 16 mega pixel camera traps, I've been revisiting a few woodrat stick houses I studied in late 2011, including one of a female I called "Lady Prunus" and featured in the post Life on Berry Lane.

Well, when I recently picked up the new cam, I was pleased to see that Lady P is still alive and kicking and enjoying said life on Berry Lane. 21 months later. And she was an adult back then, so is doing all right against the odds. On average, woodrats live about 2 years in the wild.

She also has a juvenile living with her that appears to be on the verge of dispersing.

But not far.

Seems the youngster is building a new house on the side of Lady P's.

I.e., kid-woodrat is moving into mom's garage.

Below are photos from several days at the house. The new cam seems to have handled the small mammal short-distance set nicely. Color might be a touch red, though.

Lady Prunus checking out the cam:



Lady P and the juvie collecting the coffeeberries and christmasberries I sprinkled down as both appearance incentive and thank you:



Some comings and goings:













That tail kink is one of the distinctive marks that helps ID Lady P across photos and time. As does the ear notch, of course. But it's new - she didn't have it 21 months ago.

Note above that the juvie also has tail tip character. It has a slight bend, and might be a tad shortened. But no ear nicks yet.

A California mouse or two still live in the Prunus house as well. Since all these photos are at the same crop, you can really see how much bigger the woodrat is than the Cal mouse, which is the largest of the Peromyscus species:



Here's the juvie working on the new garage apartment:









And posing for the cam:



What do you think - are those "dusky feet"?





And a final photo of the youngster snacking on a green christmasberry:



Nice to see that life on Berry Lane goes on. But Lady P better be careful - next thing you know that juvie will want to stay on her health care until 26 months old... ;)

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References:

• Nature of a Man (this blog) - The Coast Packrats 
• Nature of a Man (this blog) - Battles Under the Bay Laurel
• Nature of a Man (this blog) - The Ecotones 
• Nature of a Man (this blog) - Life on Berry Lane
• Nature of a Man (this blog) - Living in the Sticks 
• Nature of a Man (this blog) - Hanging with Miss Moss
• Linsdale and Tevis, UCPress - The Dusky-footed Wood Rat 
• The American Society of Mammalogists, Nov 1991, No. 386 - Neotoma fuscipes
• E. W. Jameson, Jr., and Hans J. Peeters, UCPress - Mammals of California
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - Neotoma fuscipes
• Wikipedia - Neotoma fuscipes

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