Mono Basin Mammals

Mono Basin Mammals

From: River Gates
Sighting_Date: 07/22/2004
Remote Name: 209.221.223.147
Date: 26 Jul 2004
Time: 17:05:46 -0400

Comments

Well it just isn't everyday that I see 3 new mammals in the Mono Basin and I thought I'd geek out on them rather than birds for a brief moment. My day began at Rush Creek where we were banding. I was crossing back to the banding station when I ran into a young Stripped Skunk, cute as a button and all tail! Justin just asked me two days before if I had ever seen a Skunk in the Basin (which I hadn't), cool! Later on in the afternoon, I was walking back to my place at Jan Simis property when I came across the smallest rabbit in North America, a Pygmy Rabbit. I flushed it into a bush and was able to peer through the sagebrush it was hiding under to get a particularly great look. I looked closely at the ears which had a black margin ending with a cream colored cresent on the edge (the ears were held back on it head so I was looking at the front side of the ear. I guess the diagnostic ear field mark is seen from the back side of the ear. I didn't see the tail, but this rabbit was about 10 inches long and way smaller than any young cottontail I have seen. The ears were also noticably small, approx 2 inches long. Okay, the day continues to be a mammal extravaganza when I was working inside my trailer on some data entry and my neighbor, a Dusky-footed Woodrat, decided to come in and touch my foot! The little punk counting coup on me and now we are not so peacefully co-inhabitaing the same space. Since our initial contact, it's been climbing my screen door in the middle of the night to slip into my trailer for god knows what...earrings, food, maybe he is looking for a place to snuggle. Who knows, all I know is the punk is getting evicted as soon as I can trap him!

Last Updated August 09, 2007