#wild rat

[corpsebod]

Ok??? He had a long week and wants a beer

[fuzzkaizer]

SPURR Audio - Wild RAT

cred: spurraudio.mitiendanube.com/wild-rat

[birds-and-the-birds]

More rat for you guys

[indagold-orchid]

Usually wild rats are pretty scrungly but this guy is just a baby and very chunky. Probably well fed.

[mastomysowner]

Hey, photographer, is Ryzhik asleep? by Victor Ivanov

When I was photographing birds at a watering hole, suddenly this beauty lover appeared from under the neighbor’s fence. I couldn't help but take advantage of the moment. ;)

[reasonsforhope]

An Australian Park Brings Back (Native) Rats

Species reintroductions often focus on the threatened and endangered. But one rewilding project in Australia shows that transplanting common species can give ecosystems a much-needed leg up.

“By day, the shrubby clifftops of North Head, a thriving slice of bushland at the northern entrance of Sydney Harbour, Australia, are a popular walking spot for urban nature enthusiasts. But when night falls, this coastal reserve is ruled by a colony of bush rats, one of the most common native rodent species scampering along the shores of southeast Australia. For anyone lucky enough to spot one of the tennis ball–sized rodents, their endearing appearance sets them apart from their invasive relatives.

“They’re like little dumplings,” says Viyanna Leo, a wildlife ecologist at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, a nonprofit organization working with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust to conserve North Head, adding “[they’re] quite round and fluffy.”

pictured: a cutie

The Project

The 250-hectare headland hasn’t always been a bush rat kingdom, though. Following a century of being vilified and exterminated from areas around Sydney Harbour, the bush rat population in North Head was wiped out decades ago by urbanization, habitat fragmentation, and predation by feral cats and foxes. The reserve was overrun by a gang of black rats, an invasive species that’s found on every continent except Antarctica. While bush rats help maintain the ecosystem’s native species, black rats wreak havoc. At North Head, they wasted no time plundering the burrows and tree hollow nests of small mammals and gorging on bird eggs, says Leo. “They were causing a lot of problems.”

But when given the chance, bush rats can be formidable ecological gatekeepers. In 2014, Leo and her team began reintroducing bush rats to North Head to drive out their intrusive counterparts. The rewilding effort is working, with annual wildlife surveys showing that black rat numbers dropped from an estimated 112 in 2019 to 29 by 2020. In May 2021, a mere nine black rats were captured. The project harnesses the bush rat’s innate territorial streak. The native rodents outcompete black rats for habitat and food, and Leo suspects that North Head will one day be a bush rat–only stomping ground. “If they’ve got the fort, they can maintain the territory,” she says.

For the reintroduction effort, Leo and her team captured 180 bush rats over three years from abundant populations in Muogamarra Nature Reserve and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, both located roughly 30 kilometers northwest of North Head. The researchers lured the rats into traps with a wholesome meal of oats, honey, and peanut butter, then assessed the animals’ genes to ensure they were diverse enough to build a flourishing new colony at North Head. After inserting a microchip into each rat, the team set the rodents free on the headland...

The Importance of Native Rodents

While most reintroductions focus on giving threatened species a boost, it’s just as important to prioritize common species in conservation efforts and rewilding projects, says Emily Roycroft, an evolutionary biologist specializing in native mammals and population genetics at the Australian National University. For instance, native rodents act as tiny engineers that shape the ecosystems they inhabit, spreading seeds, churning the soil, and keeping insect populations in check.

Native rodents provide fundamental ecosystem services, says Roycroft, who was not involved in Leo’s project. “We know that if [rodents] were once there, they were playing a role.”

Relocating common species like the bush rat can also provide a good dress rehearsal for riskier reintroductions, adds Roycroft. If something goes wrong when reintroducing a common species, there’s often enough time to tweak the approach and try again. But when researchers are dealing with a species that is on the brink of extinction, they only have one shot to get it right. “It might be the last chance for that particular species to establish a new population,” says Roycroft.

Leo suspects the bush rats have reclaimed their territory for good at North Head, which is now free of feral cats and foxes and protected from urban sprawl. “They’re pretty much established now,” she says. “I think they’ll continue to do well.”” -via Hakai Magazine, 1/11/23

[sirsen]

Mouse AU

These first two pics are Cross and Killer. This mouse AU is based off of Sku's bitty borrowers AU. I don't want to keep taking all of Sku's ideas though, so this mouse AU branches off from Sku's beginning ideas. (Cross is a house mouse who's house burns down and he meets Killer in the woods)

I think that while Killer is trying to teach Cross how to survive through the winter, they encounter Dust, and he was also a house mouse (they can tell because he's wearing a hoodie). Then Cross would try to get help from Dust, since he clearly figured out how to survive winter.

Dust ^

Dust would be very unwilling to help (because his little brother didn't make it through their first winter in the wild, and that forever haunts him now). Cross would ask for advice, and he would tell him something like, "You want my advice? Go back to the bean houses. You won't survive one winter out here." Cross would be very distraught about that, especially since he doesn't know of any bean houses near by. Killer isn't going to give up so easily, however.

Being the annoying little rodent that he is, he would keep pestering Dust unrelentingly until he finally gives in and decides to help them just to get Killer to leave him alone XD

I think maybe Dust would warn them to stay out of a certain part of the forest. There's been a big rat roaming around, hunting and eating the mice there. This would be Horror. Maybe they would accidently stumble across Horror in the winter. Since all the mice are hidden away to hibernate through winter, Horror would have to move into other areas to hunt. This leads him to finding the little group of mice. Dust and Killer have a lot of experience evading predators, but Cross does not.

With Horror skulking around their area, winter gets a lot harder to endure. How will they look for food when there's a big rat just waiting for them to poke their little heads out?

//WARNING: blood and dead mouse past this point//

Horror's design:

[pedaloftheday]

Time to get distorted and a little bit fuzzy with the Spurr Audio Wild Rat Distortion!! And, yes, the pedal is actually covered in fur, freaked me out when I opened the box...