Using steel traps to catch the kangaroo rats, researchers are able to briefly collect data, learn more about them and then release them back into the wild, according to an NBC video on the district’s YouTube page. To help sustain the population, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is supporting a team from UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and CalPoly San Luis Obisbo as they do genetic research. Researchers say the animals live in five specific locations within Sierra Azul, in addition to the population in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. The district’s plans include four phases and are mapped out to 2027 or later. From there, an SCKR Habitat and Population Monitoring Plan will be created to help the subspecies. The Santa Cruz kangaroo rat is part of a habitat assessment program so researchers can learn where these animals thrive. He built custom wildlife cameras and planted them throughout the preserve, ultimately finding the tiny creatures in 2019. Hickman approached the agency in 2016 wanting to help find species that hadn’t been spotted in the area in quite a while. Prior to this year’s discovery, the Santa Cruz kangaroo rat was last seen in 2019 in Sierra Azul by an independent researcher, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District said.Īnd before that, the creature wasn’t seen in Santa Clara County since 1947, the district said in a Facebook post.įinding the kangaroo rats is largely due to the hard work of local photographer and ecologist Ken Hickman, according to Sharp Chaney. When’s the last time these animals were seen in the area? That's how they'll know if they've already been accounted for and put a number on the current population. They are also preparing to conduct a capture study where they trap the kangaroo rats and tag their ears. Wildlife biologists are trapping and studying the animals and plan to do more this summer and fall. Sharp Chaney said researchers don't know how many kangaroo rats are in Sierra Azul but so far, they've logged about 10. The smoke and ash from these fires increase germination of these seeds, creating more manzanitas. Kangaroo rats bury manzanita seeds and keep them from heating up too much when a fire passes through. The animal is also a keystone species, which means their behaviors have a large impact on the plants and animals the kangaroo rat lives among, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District said. In other words, they are at risk of being wiped out completely. Santa Cruz kangaroo rats are listed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as a critically imperiled subspecies. states with the most and least endangered species Researchers found kangaroo rats. Giant African land snails: Giant African land snails put parts of Florida under quarantineĮndangered and threatened species: U.S. They're actually more closely related to chipmunks and pocket gophers."They also have big pouches in their cheeks that they use to store materials, also like kangaroos, he said. "And they are rodents, although they are not that closely related to rats. "The way they get around by hopping on those hind legs very much looks like how a kangaroo gets around," he told USA TODAY. They are also one of the only bipedal mammals in North America, or animals that walk on two legs. While Sharp Chaney doesn't know the exact origin of the kangaroo rat's name, they stand on their hind legs, much like a kangaroo. The non-hibernating, tiny, elusive rodents often eat seeds and they actually don’t need water since they can get it from foods, the district said. The rodents have large hind legs with "unusually long" tails, the agency said on its website. Genetic testing still needs to be done to determine for sure that the creatures in Sierra Azul are Santa Cruz kangaroo rats but based on their body measurements, everything checks out, said Matt Sharp Chaney, a wildlife biologist from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. The Santa Cruz kangaroo rat has been documented at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Felton, California and now, researchers believe they've found some in the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve as well. Researchers have finally found a tiny animal they’d been seeking for years in a California nature preserve.
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