Alex Badyaev (USA) documents a dexterous woodrat trying out its defences.
Alex was delighted to discover an elevated woodrat nest, as it saved him from crawling through thickets of barbed cacti in the dark to find one on the ground. Once in position, the challenge for Alex was to stay motionless, despite being spiked by cacti - that and keeping a tight grip on his camera gear to stop the curious rodents from carrying it off.
White-throated woodrats build fortresses by collecting jumping cholla cactus stems, drying them out and then carefully adding them to the walls of their nests.
Alex watched as every night the woodrat emerged to collect fresh stems. 'It broke them off carefully,' he observed, 'picking them up by the base, with the spines facing away'. Woodrats are also voracious collectors of novel items, which they hide in their ever-expanding nests.
USA
Alex is a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, USA, and is a regular contributor to several international natural history magazines. His scientific work, nature photography and popular science writing have all earned him major awards. His images tell stories about species, capturing their essence and revealing rarely seen behaviours.
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