The other night, I was driving home after dark, and ahead of me, I could see small figures on the road. I realized there were four to five young raccoons (Procyon lotor), likely following mom. I slammed on my brakes, started honking my horn, and threw on my hazards. The two cars behind me swerved around, thank goodness, but there was no way I was going to plow through a family of raccoons.

Once the card had passed, the road was empty, and I pulled over to assess the situation. Most of the raccoons were gone. One was lying still in the middle of the road, likely deceased, but I still used a shopping bag to move it off the road. Another was closer to the shoulder and crying, obviously injured. I don't know if it had crawled to that location after being hit, or if it was hit by one of the cars that passed me while trying to escape. I moved it off, too, VERY CAREFULLY with the bag, which I threw away later.

A young man going in the opposite direction stopped to offer assistance. I explained there wasn't much we could do at this point. He wanted to help, so I said if the living one was still there in the morning, he could see if the wildlife rehabilitator two towns over would take it.  Most rehabilitations don't take raccoons, but it was worth a shot.

That was always the worst thing when I would answer the phone to a distressed person in a similar situation to the one I was in. You want to help, but the only thing you can do is let nature take its course. It is such a helpless feeling. I managed to save a few raccoons by putting myself at risk of being rear-ended, but I had little hope for the two I moved off the road.

Should I not have stopped my car? I feel like I did the right thing, but I would also probably be singing a different tune had I caused an accident. What I saw in front of me were young lives; I can't take that lightly.

I found it ironic that I would take such a risk for raccoons, which are definitely not high on my list of animals that need protecting. They are aggressive, not afraid of humans, carry all the diseases, and are cruel hunters. There's a reason very few rehabilitators will take them, and even then, only the babies. You cannot safely (for the human or the animal) rehabilitate an adult raccoon.

They do serve their purpose. Believe it or not, the messes they make at the trash cans at the Zoo every night are them being nature's clean-up crew. They don't know that the leftover KFC is not the same as a bird carcass in the wild. They also eat a lot of pests.

They do not, as you may have heard, wash their food. They eat lots of aquatic animals and use their ultra-sensitive hands to feel around in the water and mud to find a snack. If they do take food and place it in water, it is this instinct to look for food in water. However, these sensitive hands also let them open doors, unhook latches, and pull prey, usually chickens and waterfowl, through fences. I've lost more than one feathered friend to these dexterous bandits. 

I guess the question will always come back to, "to break or not to break." That is something each person must decide for themselves. If you are driving behind me, though, be prepared to stop.

Microtus ochrogaster

My parents visited recently, and we went for a walk on Konza Prairie. I was looking for wildflowers and migrating birds, but I encountered something I had not expected. Not even 20 feet from the parking lot, a small rodent was munching on some vegetation. I quickly grabbed for my phone, but I wasn’t faster than two college students who stormed by me and scared off the critter. I took a mental photo, and later at home, I perused my mammals guide to narrow it down. I finally figured out it was a prairie vole!

Prairie voles are normally crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), so I was lucky to see one around 10 in the morning. As their name suggests, they inhabit prairies, grasslands, and agricultural fields. As I witnessed, they eat vegetation in the spring and summer and roots in the colder months.

Next time I am on the Konza, I’m going to have to look for more vole signs. Apparently, they leave little runways in the grass, as well as tunnel underground. I’ve seen vole tunnels before. My parent’s yard is habitat for meadow voles, but I never got to see one in person! I’m not sure if my parents had before, either. They were surprised at how big it was and how cute! Maybe they will stop complaining about the voles in their yard now.

Odocoileus virginianus

In the United States, I have lived in California, Arizona, and Colorado, states where Mule Deer live. I helped raise rescued Mule Deer in Arizona, rehabilitate and release Mule Deer in California, and watch Mule Deer roaming through my mother’s yard in Colorado.

Now I live in Kansas, and we have White-Tailed Deer. Despite them being the most common deer species in North America, it has taken me some time to get used to them. At first, I thought they looked weird, like Mule Deer, but off somehow.

Luckily, I’ve had a few encounters with them. Twice while walking on the Konza Prairie, I turned a corner and there one was. Once it was a pair of does, the next time it was a single doe. I was much closer to them than I was comfortable, but I still had to walk by them. I talked to them the whole time to let them know I was not a threat, and none of them cared! I expected them to bolt off, white fluffy tail in the air at full alert. I doubt all of them are this mellow, but it was unexpected.

A little research revealed White-Tails are more likely to graze than Mule Deer, who prefer to browse on leaves. White-Tails will even raid fields of their crops!

I’m looking forward to becoming more familiar with this species of deer.

​Mirounga angustirostris

The first time I saw a Northern Elephant Seal had to be at San Simeon. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it! This massive colony of Ellies, as they are affectionately called, always has something going on. You might see the massive Beachmaster males fighting for territory, the females trying to get away from them, the teen males pretending to be tough stuff, or, if you are very lucky, a little baby being born. They all have different sounds, depending on age and sex. The large males sound like a sewer pipe draining, the babies sound like angry Muppets, and the females are somewhere in between. I could watch them for hours. My mother was even a docent there when she lived in Cambria.

When I moved back to California, during my interview at California Wildlife Center (CWC), they had an Ellie weaner (recently weaned baby) in care. I had never seen one up close before! He had very deep, dark eyes and a bowling ball head. I would soon become deeply acquainted with these babies.

We probably treated more than 100 babies while I was at CWC. They were lazy and feisty at the same time. During nap time, it would sound like they were snoring because their nostrils are naturally closed and they have to force them open to breathe, making a pishhh sound. This is an adaptation to help them during their deep dives for food. They were curious and would mash their squishy noses against the fence when you would walk by. I can’t tell you how tempting it was to boop the snoot. They also have large teeth, so that was an incentive not to. You also didn’t want to hang out too long by their snoots because when they would blow open their nostrils, snot often shot out.

These babies had to be taught how to eat fish. Once they were up to a healthy weight with the help of fish/piscivore smoothies, they were put in fish school. This involved sitting on them, holding up their massive heads, and shoving a fish head-first into their mouths. I got to do this once. They have a habit, when they are frustrated, of arching their backs and turning into a donut shape. I was literally sitting on this baby, and I am not small, and he still lifted me up with his donut move!

Once they know what fish are, we would feed them in shallow pools and then graduate them to the bigger pool. When we thought they had the hang of it, they would be returned to the ocean. This almost never went smoothly, as I mentioned, they can be lazy. We would open the crate, and they would not come out. They would yell and fight, and we would eventually have to dump them out. That led to donuts, more yelling, and tossing sand on their backs, which is something they would do to stay cool. The Ellies would not go in the water with us there, so we would have to hike back up to the parking lot and watch them from there. Some took HOURS to get the hint. Eventually, they would all venture out again.

Unless they were spotted at a rookery, we would never know how they fared. Anytime not on a beach was spent well out at sea, diving for more than 30 minutes at a time for deep-sea squid and fish. I recently learned you can track your own Elephant Seal with a Fahlo bracelet. Mine is named Kay, and she is out at sea west of Seattle.
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I miss working with these noisy, smelly Muppet seals. Any future visits to California have to include a trip to see Elephant Seals.

Marmota monax

The first wild and actually the first-ever Groundhog I saw was being stalked by a leopard. Yes, you read that correctly. I was working an evening event at Sunset Zoo and Annika, the Amur Leopard, was in her habitat enjoying the evening when we both saw movement along the fence line. It was a Groundhog. He had her FULL attention. She went up to the fence, but the Groundhog was out of her reach. It took a moment for him to realize that danger was very close by and run away.

Other Groundhogs at the Zoo have been less lucky. We’ve had a few wander into the Tiger habitat. They did not wander back out again. I’ve heard that the Cheetah is less motivated, and they have been known to escape. Groundhogs also apparently look like Beavers to the general public. On Wednesday last week, we had three separate guests report that our Beavers had escaped. We don’t have Beavers. The Groundhogs were just extra active that day.

Like Beavers, though, Groundhogs are rodents. More specifically, they are massive ground squirrels, although they have a short tail. They have strong jaws and ever-growing teeth, which they use to munch plants, fruits, and vegetables like my favorite internet Groundhog, Chunk. They will also eat insects, eggs, and other small animals when they have the chance.

I was shocked to learn that Groundhogs can climb trees and are also excellent swimmers. They are crepuscular, being active at dawn and dusk, but like our Beaver-impersonators, can also be out during the day. 

The most popular Groundhog is Punxsutawney Phil, who can predict how much more winter there will be each year on February 2. If he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, spring will be early. 
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I love these chonky rodents and hope they can keep clear of the Leopard habitat.

​Tayassu Tajacu
 
When my mother moved to Arizona, we would talk on the phone and she would tell me about the Javelina she would see wandering their neighborhood. I didn’t recognize the name, so I asked what they were. She said they were rodents that looked like pigs, smelled like skunks, and were bristly like porcupines. I had no idea what she was talking about until she said they were also called peccaries. The lightbulb went off. I remembered learning about them and that they were the new world relative of old world pigs. “They aren’t rodents,” I informed her. “Everyone here says they are rodents,” she replied. She was correct in that many people in Arizona do think Javelina are rodents. They are not. They are artiodactyls, or even-toed ungulates. This Order includes deer, hippos, giraffes, cows, and many others. They are as closely related to rodents as we are.

Like their not-so-close relative, pigs, Javelina do have a snout which they use to dig around in the soil for food. These include roots, bulbs, and my mother’s tulips. They are named after their sharp tusks, which look like javelins. They use these built-in weapons for defense, as they are mostly herbivores; however, I have personally seen one kill and eat a squirrel. Maybe let’s say they aren’t very picky.

Yes, they do smell like skunks. You can usually smell them before you see them because they have a musk gland on their lower back. Herd members will rub this on each other to help them stay together, as they have an excellent sense of smell, but their eyesight isn’t very good.

They do have long, coarse hair which stands on end when they feel threatened, making them look much bigger than their 18 inches tall. They also have short legs with teeny tiny hooves to help them get through dense brush. The babies look like potatoes on stilettos.

After moving to Arizona myself, I became very familiar with Javelinas. I loved watching entire families grunt and clip-clop their way across the street looking for the next flower bed to raid. You also couldn’t leave your jack-o-lantern out on Halloween, as pumpkins are one of their favorite snacks. Your elegant holiday display could quickly become an orange massacre!

If they don’t live where you are, you might be in luck! Javelina are moving northwards as temperatures warm. They were not historically even found in Arizona. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. Today, they are found from the Southwest through Central and most of South America.

As for why people think they are rodents, I still have no idea. It is suggested that it is because of their tusks, but rodents don’t have tusks! They have large incisors! I may never know the reason for this misidentification, but I will always be that annoying person who pipes up to provide an unsolicited natural history of this underappreciated animal.

Cynomys ludovicianus
 
When I lived in Colorado, I used to see Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs on the walk from my car to the building every day at work. I was always delighted to see them. They were scarcer in the winter, but if there was snow on the ground, their little tracks would show that they were still periodically leaving their burrows. In spring, the moms would get really big and not long after that, Prairie Puppies! Not much can out-cute baby Prairie Dogs.

I delighted in watching their bottoms bounce as they ran, seeing them in full sploot on hot day, and hearing them jump yip to each other. I really missed them when I moved away.

But then! I moved to Kansas and, wouldn’t you know, we have them at the Zoo! We have an all-male population, so there isn’t much hope of Prairie Puppies, but I get to hear them jump-yip every day!

I’m working on including animal spotlights in our email blasts to highlight some of our less “popular” animals, so this month I chose the Prairie Dogs. They are the only native mammal we have visible in the main zoo, and I think they need some press.

The thing about writing for public consumption, not counting my blog readers, is that the average American reads at about a fifth-grade level. In order to help with this, I run what I have written through ChatGPT. I also ask it to make it sound more fun. I’m pretty insecure about my writing style and realize I can be a bit dry. Bless you for reading this far. Anyway, below is what it shot out. It even added emojis! Let me know in the comments what you think.
 
Visit Sunset Zoo’s Prairie Dog Town!
 
Sunset Zoo cares for 16 black-tailed prairie dogs. They spend much of each day running from burrow to burrow, standing guard, and communicating to each other. These small, furry animals are native to the short grass prairies of North America, including those in Western Kansas.

🏡 Prairie Dog Towns

Prairie dogs live in large underground communities called "towns." Each town is made up of family groups known as "coteries." Their burrows have different rooms for sleeping, storing food, and even bathrooms!

👀 Keeping Watch

You will likely see some of our prairie dogs on the lookout for predators like hawks, coyotes, and snakes. They have a special way of warning each other by making different barking sounds for different dangers. Their vocabularies are so diverse, they can even describe what color clothes people are wearing!

🐾 The Jump-Yip

As you are walking around the central area of Sunset Zoo, you will likely hear a high-pitched yip that sounds a bit like “pew-pew”, followed by multiple other yips. This is the prairie dogs’ jump-yip. A prairie dog stands up, stretches, and lets out a loud "yip!" This signal can spread through the town like a wave, showing that everything is okay.

🌿 What's for Dinner?

Prairie dogs mainly eat grasses and flowering plants. They get most of their water from the plants they consume.

🌎 Important Neighbors

Prairie dogs are a "keystone species," meaning they play a big role in their ecosystem. Their burrows provide homes for other animals like burrowing owls and snakes. They are also the only prey species that black-footed ferrets eat. The decline in this food source was so severe that black-footed ferrets were actually thought to be extinct until a small colony was discovered in Wyoming in 1981.

⚠️ Challenges They Face
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Prairie dog populations have decreased by almost 99% due to habitat loss and hunting. They are also not legal to keep as pets in Kansas because they can carry diseases and have strong bites.
Black-tailed prairie dogs are fascinating creatures that play a vital role in their environment. Next time you're exploring the prairies, keep an eye out for these busy little animals!

Bassariscus astutus

Did you know there is a mammal native to North America called the Ringtail? I'd bet more people know about Ringtail Lemurs (thanks in large part to the Madagascar movies) than the Ringtail.

They are relatives of racoons and are named after their long black and white striped tail. Ringtails live in rocky areas not far from water and are incredible climbers. They are nocturnal and have excellent eyesight and hearing. Like raccoons, they are omnivores and will eat just about anything that will fit in their mouths. Ringtails have a broad range across the Western United States and Northwestern Mexico, but they are very VERY difficult to spot.

I can’t remember the first time I learned about Ringtails. It might have been when I was living in Arizona, but then it might have been earlier. The first time I saw one in human care was at an event put on by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. It was much smaller than I had expected. I figured they would be closer in size to a Raccoon or Coati, but they are more like the size of a squirrel.

There were rumors they lived at Malibu Creek State Park, but I never met anyone who had seen one. Someone at some point had, so the legend stuck. Apparently, they also live in Kansas. Maybe one of these days I’ll hike down a rocky canyon and see one, but I doubt it. I’d probably just break my ankle and have nothing to show for it. That would be an awkward conversation with the EMTs. “I was looking for a Ringtail.” “You mean a Ring-tailed Lemur? They live in Madagascar!”

Sigh.

Sciurus niger

When I think of squirrels, this is the species that comes to mind. In Los Angeles, Eastern Fox Squirrels are what you would see in your backyard or running across the powerlines. Strangely, they have only existed in Southern California for about 100 years. Confederate Civil War veterans brought the Squirrels as pets when they moved to Los Angeles to convalesce in the warm, dry weather. As the Eastern part of their name suggests, Eastern Fox Squirrels are native to the Eastern United States and parts of Canada, but they have been introduced in other areas, too.  There are now scattered populations throughout California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, and Ontario.

I had the opportunity to work with Eastern Fox Squirrels when I worked in wildlife rehabilitation. They are feisty and the babies have a very definitive off-switch in their development when they will no longer tolerate being fed/handled by humans. They build dreys in trees made of twigs where they bear their young. They have two litters a year: once in the spring and once in the fall, usually of two to four kits.

The “fox” in their name comes from their reddish color; however, they can be black, brown, or a combination of all three colors. My aunt in Menlo Park, California, has a population of black squirrels in her neighborhood. I was quite excited to see one minding his/her own business in my aunt’s backyard.
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Eastern Fox Squirrels are quite adaptable to suburban life, taking easily to the mixed woodlands of neighborhoods and parks. They are very vocal, and you can often hear them chittering in the trees. I love seeing these fluffy hooligans on my walks. Now we just need to teach them to stay off the road!

Odocoileus hemionus

Last week, I had Mule Deer run in front of my car several times, and I felt I should write them up and maybe they would stop giving me a heart attack. It isn’t rut, which is their breeding season, when the males are so distracted they don’t pay attention to cars. It’s still too early for fawning season. Maybe they are just excited it is spring.

Mule Deer should be excited for the season change because they are browsers, or leaf eaters. They have to be creative in the winter when there aren’t any leaves. Amazingly, they do live in a variety of habitats across Western North America, including the desert, so they have clearly adapted well.

Mule Deer are part of the bovine family, which includes cows, bison, and some species of antelope. Mule Deer only have bottom teeth and a hard palate instead of top teeth, but their most notable characteristic is their ears, from which they get their name. Apparently, their ears make up ¾ of the length of their head. They are also known as Black-Tailed Deer, but really, who is looking at their tail with ears like that!

Mule Deer are my deer. They are the species I would see when we would go camping as children. I helped raise orphaned Mule Deer at Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary. We rehabilitated them at California Wildlife Center, and then would see them wander through the property after release. I’d see them all the time at Malibu Creek State Park. And, most recently, I would see them wander through my mother’s yard, on occasion.  Whenever I see a different species of deer, I think they look weird. It’s not their fault, I am just so used to seeing Mule Deer. Now that I live in Kansas and we have both Mule and White-Tailed Deer, I’m hoping I have an opportunity to compare them.
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This is not the last time I will write about Mule Deer. Because they live near humans, there are lots of opportunities for human/Mule Deer conflict, especially during fawning and rut. Stay tuned for helpful tips. And in the meantime, drive a little more slowly if you are in an area where Mule Deer live.