Cartophagy

[urbpan]

There was a radio call. A guest noticed that a zoo map had ended up in the prairie dog exhibit. I was nearby so I went over to check. Sure enough, there it was. I waited for Children's Zoo staff to arrive.


Before they did, one of the prairie dogs made short work of the map. A guest said "he shouldn't eat that!" I told her not to worry, that the rodent was shredding the map to turn it into nesting material.


The prairie dog crumpled up the shreds of map and disappeared down a burrow with them. Nice comfy paper nest coming up!

Comments

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

No but he looks like a beaver without a beaver tail. His bottom is rather large in relation to his head and he has an adorable waddle to his walk.

A few other people have seen him and said "that's a gopher" so... Could he be a ground hog?

We had a dog next door for a while and I didn't see him for the entire time. I will watch to see if he returns and try to get a photo.

He doesn't live in the back but our yard is part of his route to somewhere.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a woodchuck (groundhog; marmota monax). Prairie dogs and woodchucks are fairly similar, the main difference being that prairie dogs are highly social, living in large groups, while woodchucks are solitary.