Saturday, August 27, 2011

Deer vs. Kangaroo

On the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, in the lands of the Mono, the native deer and kangaroo sometimes have late night encounters...

peromyscus
11:15pm - deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, finds and starts collecting seeds

kangaroo mouse
11:17pm - kangaroo mouse, Microdipodops megacephalus, hops in while deer's away

mouse fight!
11:27pm - deer versus kangaroo!

kangaroo mouse
11:36pm - to the victor go the spoils

kangaroo mouse
11:39pm - kangaroo stuffs the last of the seeds into its pouches

peromyscus
The next night at 12:08am - deer returns to the seedless battlefield

The mousy moral to this story?

Don't mess with kangaroos, man - they know them crazy Matrix-style moves.

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14 comments:

  1. TexWisGirlAugust 27, 2011

    LOL! too cute!

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  2. smooshy heartAugust 27, 2011

    That was a fun post!

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  3. biobabblerAugust 28, 2011

    oh, so delightful! =) hee. Thanks!!! =)

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  4. Christopher MooreAugust 28, 2011

    This is absolutely fantastic! Are you baiting your cameras specifically for rodents?

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  5. randomtruthAugust 29, 2011

    Gotta love the lives of the micro mammals.

    Christopher - yes, this was what I call a "short set" - it was out for 1-2 nights in an area that looked good for rodents with a handful of sunflower seeds tossed into the scene. You can see more like it in the post Cirque de No Soleil.

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  6. Christopher MooreAugust 30, 2011

    Thanks for that link! I have a lot of similar data (e.g.,
    http://www.youtube.com/user/cmmoore1982?feature=mhee). Have you considered using video? High-quality cameras are amazingly inexpensive nowadays! But really, great stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  7. randomtruthAugust 31, 2011

    Hey Christopher - nice vid. I've played with video, but many critters I want to capture are out at night. Have you sorted out any way to create a good white light spotlight for night vids?

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  8. Camera Trap CodgerSeptember 01, 2011

    I don't know if your teacher was Angelo Dundee or Don King, but you have staged a great "rumble in the jungle". Hysterical!

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  9. Christopher MooreJanuary 25, 2012

    I recently found some great, inexpensive cameras with IR! I have caught pairs of foraging deer mice and foraging from bear and coyote scat!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Katie (Nature ID)August 01, 2013

    Hey Ken, I'm looking for one of your old mouse posts (at least I think it was yours, or Codger's, or JK's) which looks at the length of a mouse tail to help ID it. Do you know what I'm remembering?

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    Replies
    1. randomtruthAugust 01, 2013

      We all pretty much quote the key characters in Jameson & Peeters Mammals of CA, but I think Life on Berry Lane may be one of the posts you're remembering, as it has 3 Peromyscus species living sympatrically in the same woodrat stick house.

      Delete
  11. Katie (Nature ID)August 02, 2013

    Thanks, that is the post I remembered. I'll have to check out that book. I hope they have it at the library. In the mean time, could you take a look at this mouse and let me know what you think it is? http://natureid.blogspot.com/2013/07/mouse-072413-wilder-ranch.html

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  12. UnknownNovember 13, 2016

    I'm pretty sure your "kangaroo mouse" photos show a Perognathus pocket mouse. I think it is the Great Basin Pocket Mouse (Perognathus parvus), but I can't really tell if it has the diagnostic flaps of skin in the ears. The Dark Kangaroo Mouse (Microdipodops megacephalus) lives primarily in sand dunes in this area and looks quite different. I caught one in an area of dunes South of Mono Lake in May; happy to send photos.

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    Replies
    1. randomtruthDecember 27, 2016

      (Sorry, been busy) Does look like we mixed up our Heteromyids. Thanks Meera, I'll correct the various posts.

      Delete

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