Critter News

DECEMBER 27, 2010

I recently fostered the sweetest little rat and I currently have two mice. And, of course, our old friend, Charles River Laboratories, will be a major supplier of lab rats. While both rats and mice have similarities to humans, rats win out in key areas. Therefore, this Boston Globe article saddens me on both levels.

Rats 100

Rats Mice Boston Rodents 100

4 The Love Of Animals

APRIL 25, 2010

Recently, another powerful little nose has joined the diagnostic force: that of the African giant pouched rat. Read more about these amazing rats and the work they are doing by visiting the full article here. Rats help save humans. The sizeable rodents are helping to detect tuberculosis (TB).

Rats 100

Rats Humane Greece Rodents 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2015

A bird species battling an onslaught of invasive rats just got a glimpse of hope. While this is happy news for any parents, and wonderful news for any threatened species (these Pipits live only on Antarctica’s South Georgia Island and number only 3,000-4,000 pairs), it’s tremendous news for those trying to eradicate rats from the island.

Georgia 185

Georgia Rats Rodents 2017 185

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 27, 2015

Let me introduce my guest blogger, Lisa Owens Viani, co-founder of the California-based group RATS ( Raptors Are The Solution ), which educates people about the dangers of rat poisons. Birds Conservation Bell Labs poisons Hawk rat poison Motomco wild bird poisoning wildlife poisoning'

Mountain Lions 263

Mountain Lions Rats Rodents Lions 263

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2023

One creature that doesn’t budge for the Nuthatch is the Brown Rat, and a pair of these rodents were demonstrating their agility by raiding the bird seed. Unwelcome visitor: a marauding Brown Rat I left Lynford with no unusual sightings, but the satisfaction of lots of close encounters with several of our commonest birds.

Barn Owls 218

Barn Owls Rats Japan Blackbirds 218

4 The Love Of Animals

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Looks like this sweet little rat is all settled in for a long winters nap.

Rats 100

Rats 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2023

In short, I truly believe that there still are, maybe not plenty but a good number of species that to this day go unnoticed to the scientific eye, but are surely known to the indigenous peoples (the best example is the newly discovered giant rat from the Solomon Islands). The Cocha Antshrike was one of these species not long ago.

Solomon Islands 223

Solomon Islands Ecuador Colombia Brazil 223

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2014

In April 2014, a 4-year-old boy in the Bronx, New York, died after eating rat poison. An owl who eats a rat poisoned by a farmer or a pest-control company will die the same death as one poisoned by a homeowner. Banner photo by Dave Harper; second by Suzie Gilbert; third by RATS. No poisons are safe.

Rats 263

Rats Rodents Pets 2014 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2021

They were named for the Isle of Man but are no longer found there – the arrival of the brown rat ruined that home for them. (But But there is, apparently, and thanks to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, some good news on the rat front in that part of the world.). Absent mishap, they will live for fifty years.

West Virginia 210

West Virginia Rats Albatross Georgia 210

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Green Bay, Wisconsin, will put up nesting platforms and boxes in an attempt to lure birds of prey. The nesting program isn’t to benefit the birds but to try to contain a serious rodent problem. How cool is that?

Rats 164

Rats Wisconsin Rodents Birds 164

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2012

Getting rid of rabbits and goats was something that had been done for many years, but it was generally thought that rats and cats would be impossible to remove from all but the smallest islands. Hit the rats hard and quick in a single hit. But while obvious this was also a much harder proposition. Insanely ambitious?

New Zealand 173

New Zealand Rats Mammals Possums 173

Critter News

JULY 19, 2012

Invading rats with bodies up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) long have begun eating eggs and chicks, and some experts fear that unless the rats are eradicated, they could tip the Humboldt penguin toward extinction. From the Huffington Post.

Penguins 100

Penguins Chile Rats Eating Eggs 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

One issue puzzles me, the inclusion of those unidentifiable groups, such as bats, rats and mice, 27 pages of them (and this comes from a former caver who actually likes bats), which you aren’t likely to see (apart from fruit bats) and are even less likely to ID.

Madagascar 247

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 247

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Perhaps the most telling thing in Bloxam’s notes is the following: We saw quantities of rats with long tails, different in appearance from the common South Sea rat and resembling in color and almost in size the Norway rat. Rats did it in, as they did so many species. (I relied upon it heavily for this article.).

Killing 170

Killing Rats Cooking Norway 170

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2012

Nonnative species have huge impacts on wildlife species everywhere… mice kill seabird chicks in their burrows, rats eat endangered bird eggs, overpopulated deer clear the understory of forests, pigs root out native plants and terrestrial animals, cats kill anything they can get their paws on. For example, when the U.S.

Animal Rights Movement 212

Animal Rights Movement Animal Rights Wildlife Rights 212

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

They are deemed to be useless homes for rats (which provide food for snakes and owls), ugly expanses of weeds (enjoyed by seedeaters, grosbeaks, wintering Orchard Orioles , and other species), places that need to be “improved” (evictions for pioneering ground-cuckoos and endemic ground-sparrows).

Costa Rica 257

Costa Rica Sparrows Rodents Rats 257

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 15, 2022

On the ground, spilled wheat attracted a pair of Dusky Rice Rats , to take mouthfuls under a particular log. In the world of creatures small, squirrels are undoubtedly the kings. Both Mountain and Clay-coloured Thrushes also made their appearance.

Costa Rica 232

Costa Rica Panama Squirrels Nicaragua 232

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2013

Normally I feed vultures, as well as hawks and owls, defrosted mice and rats. He ate through my remaining supply of rats and mice, as well as all my pinkies (hairless, day-old rodents, easily digestible and good for starvation cases). Did I have an answer for him. Sometimes a defrosted chick. So: a broken-winged vulture came in.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 199

Wildlife Rehabilitation Rodents Mice Chipmunks 199

Critter News

APRIL 1, 2011

Anything to help stop the dissection of real mice in schools.

Dissection 100

Dissection Rats Mice 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2017

The law of unintended consequences has tragic effects at a zoo in England, as rat poison ends up killing the Rainbow Lorikeets it was intended to protect. Scientists ponder the feasibility of genetically engineering chickens to lay the eggs of endangered bird species.

Penguins 100

Penguins Argentina France Stray 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2020

One issue puzzles me, the inclusion of those unidentifiable groups, such as bats, 39 pages of them (and this comes from a former caver who actually likes bats), also mice, rats, shrews and similar, which you aren’t likely to see (don’t trust action films) and are even less likely to ID?

Mammals 178

Mammals Asia Sri Lanka Bhutan 178

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2012

Bidding is on TradeMe (New Zealand’s eBay), and the money raised will go to clearing the Antipodes Islands of introduced rats ( a story we talked about before ). The Department of Conservation in New Zealand is giving you, yes you , the chance to spend two days and one night raising Kakapo chicks ! So it’s win-win really.

Raised 160

Raised New Zealand Rats Parrots 160

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2011

” Prosecutors argued in March that the woman put rat poison and antifreeze in food dishes meant for the neighborhood cats. An online lecture by Dauphine is entitled “apocalypse meow – free ranging cats and the destruction of American wildlife.” Here’s hoping that Dauphine has her name cleared.

Feral Cats 225

Feral Cats Hunting Free Range Rats 225

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Little Barrier had rats at one point, so it may have re-colonised, or may be still recovering from the rats. Whether the species only breeds on Little Barrier is obviously not known yet whether the species breeds elsewhere.

New Zealand 143

New Zealand Rats Cooking 2003 143

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2013

They’re better predictors than that more famous overgrown rat in Pennsylvania, bob-bob-bobbing along with the first warm winds to begin caroling from our maples and stalking our lawns. It’s not really spring until the American Robins return, they say. We birders know better, of course. Love robins?

Pennsylvania 162

Pennsylvania Rats Birds 162

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

A plant in South Africa, commonly called Rat’s Tail but referred to by scientists as Babiana ringens , evolved a perch for birds to use while feeding. This aids the plants because they get pollinated as part of the bargain. Now if only one of the plants in New York would evolve a couch near a good birding spot… a.

South Africa 154

South Africa Rats New York Africa 154

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

I’ve written at length about the specific vulnerability of insular faunas and the catastrophic extinctions caused by the arrival of rats, mice, ferrets, cats and possums (amongst others), here in New Zealand fully half the pre-human bird species were lost. Two activists where even caught spreading antidote to the poison on the island

Animal Rights 265

Animal Rights Rights Animal New Zealand 265

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2015

The long, sharp, and barbed thorns discourage rats and other small mammals from climbing the cacti to reach the eggs and chicks. Giant Hummingbirds build cup-shaped nests where eggs are exposed, but rather than hiding or camouflaging the nest, the biggest of all hummers generally places its nest in cacti.

Mammals 173

Mammals Rats Eggs Peru 173

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2016

But appreciating the humble “flying rat” doesn’t mean that when a Peregrine Falcon shows up I’m not rooting for that bad boy. I even understand, though I don’t condone, the urge that drive people to heap birdseed and stale bread on the sidewalks for them.

Falcons 149

Falcons Rats Dogs Birds 149

10,000 Birds

JUNE 12, 2018

Midway, which was once a military facility, has long had mice and it once had rats, though they were eradicated in 1996. Employing long-term biosecurity protocols to prevent the reinvasion of the island by mice and rats. Invasive species , particularly rodents, have long been a problem on the Hawaiian archipelago.

Mice 103

Mice Albatross Honolulu Rats 103

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2011

The famous Red-tailed Hawk of Central Park is apparently using his pad with a great view of Central Park to woo the women who find themselves unable to resist his rat-catching ways and wiles.

Rats 150

Rats New York 150

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2014

More reviled than perhaps any other species for the mess they make, their copious poop, and their general ubiquity, they are disliked, cursed, and stuck with monikers like “rat with wings.” ” But the Feral Pigeon has much about it that should be admired.

Rats 172

Rats Feral Farming Collecting 172

Critter News

FEBRUARY 7, 2009

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Rats 100

Rats Cats 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 10, 2015

And I am a serious environmentalist, and my heart bleeds every time I take my old car batteries and leftover rat poison and dump them in the river. “My cat is a ferocious birder … and I am also a serious bird lover.”. Does Birdsbesafe work? It certainly works better than nothing.

Cats 260

Cats Butcher Pets Battery 260

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2018

But would the bloggers, readers, and local residents who’ve been drawn into this saga sit still if Dora was threatened by rat poison, as befell so many of Pale Male’s mates? And to ‘raise awareness’ is such a nebulous thing.

New York City 104

New York City Pennsylvania Rats New York 104

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2014

You’ve no doubt heard about birds being put at risk by nonnative cats, rats, and even goats. Yes, that’s what’s happening at Midway Atoll, a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). But plants?

Albatross 190

Albatross Goats Rats Japan 190

Critter News

APRIL 7, 2009

For an 11-month period that ended in December, researchers subjected pigs and rats to about 200 blasts, according to Pentagon documents and interviews. Tags: rats animal experimentation military pigs. The explosions have ranged in intensity, wounding some of the pigs and killing others. Roadside bombs are the top killer of U.S.

Pigs 100

Pigs Research Ethical Treatment Afghanistan 100