Cartophagy

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!

3:00 snapshot #1967: Wednesday

First time this year that this parking lot is full. Beautiful day, April vacation week.

3:00 snapshot #1968: Thursday

Birdwatching out the window.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #20

Generally speaking, these guys are too fast to be pinned down by a human hand. Then again, if you see one in the daylight, chances are it's not doing too well anyway. Vigorous and repeated attempts at chemical control mean that many cockroaches encountered indoors are staggering about impaired by a neurotoxin.


This on-the-back posture has been discussed elsewhere, common to dead and dying roaches. This individual is Periplaneta americana, the "American cockroach" which is probably native to subsaharan Africa. Think of it as tiny bit of karma for America's gruesome plunder of that continent's people and resources.


They can only survive indoors in hot and humid places like boiler rooms, subways, locker rooms, and greenhouses.