A Moment with Nature: Kangaroo Rat

From the Western Heritage Nature Trail System

Featuring: Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys deserti)

The Desert Kangaroo rat is one of 22 species of kangaroo rats that can be found in the North American arid southwest. New Mexico is home to 3 of the kangaroo rats. These small rats inhabit the lowest, hottest, and most arid regions of our seven western states, they can be found in northern Mexico and up to the Canadian provinces too.

Habitat:

The Desert Kangaroo rat prefers arid climates with sparse vegetation covering sandy ground. Desert Kangaroo rats burrow into the sand dunes, they are rarely found on hard or gravelly soils These rats are one of the few animals to establish colonies and exist in shifting sand dunes. A colony will effectively dig 6 to 12 burrows with in the dunes, complete with entrance and escape holes, cache rooms for food supply storage, nesting areas and even a nursery for rearing the neonates.

Appearance:

A Desert Kangaroo rat size ranges from 3 to 6 inches. They have an extremely long tail up to 7 inches long and it tapers with white-tipped guard hairs along the top to the tip end. These rats have small forelimbs and long, strong hind legs which modified for jumping, hence the name “Kangaroo” rat. The legs have long hairs aiding in their defense tactics. Desert Kangaroo rats have the thickest hair in their genus that is a pale brown on their backs with scatterings of black hairs along the spine. They have indistinct white markings above their eyes, on their feet and underbelly. 

Breeding Season:

Desert Kangaroo rats mate in the spring coinciding with spring rains that bring on an abundance of food sources. The female Kangaroo rat is the ‘hussy’ of the rat-world, she will mate with several males. Once she has conceived this rat produces a fetal plug and no other males can breed with her. Droughts diminish the breeding populations considerably. The female can produce 2 litters a year and have 1 to 6 neonates (babies). Her gestation period is 29-32 days. The young are born head-first and the mother assists in delivery by pulling on the fetal membrane during the birthing process. Baby Desert kangaroo rats can breed at two month of age. Their life-span is 3 to 5 years.

Communication:

Desert Kangaroo rats have a keen sense of smell, extraordinary hearing, and excellent night vision. They are not vocal, but can make soft squeaks. All Kangaroo rats are “drummers”, they thump the ground with their powerful hind legs to make a loud noise when their burrow entrances are disturbed and danger is present. Drumming of their hind feet also signals the colony that food sources are found.

Food:

Desert Kangaroo rat diets comprise primarily dried seeds, nuts, leaves of certain food plants, mesquite bean pods. They can and will at times eat an insect, but mostly plant matter. They have fur-lined cheek pouches in which stuff the food sources and transport back to the colony and store in underground food chambers. They normally do not drink water, as their unique bodies metabolizes moisture from their food.

Predation Action:

All kangaroo rats are nocturnal creatures. During the day their colony entrances are packed with sand to keep predators out. These little rats with the unique hind legs sever in two purposes, one for travelling and the other for fear-flight response when a predator is hunting them down. Their hind legs can propel these rats 6 to 8 feet in a rapid response to escape.

Another unusual action of these little rats, is they can be staunch and aggressive for their size. I mentioned above about the long hairs on their hind leg to feet. When disturbed by a predator they will turn around and face the predator and begin kicking sand into the enemy’s eyes. This gives them a possible chance of escape by boing-boing off into a safe zone away from the predator.

Animals that do feed on the kangaroo rats are, hawks, owls, bobcats, skunks, coyotes, foxes and snakes.

So, when you are on the Western Heritage Nature Trail you won’t see a live Desert Kangaroo rat, but you can see a bronzed replica of this little amazing rat of the Lea County sand dunes. On any give moon-lit night, travel down some of the back county roads of Lea County’s oil patch and you will see the Desert Kangaroo rats hopping across the road in your headlights. 

This bronzed Desert Kangaroo rat is off to the South side as your walk to the front entrance of the museum. Oh, by the way, you may see a large Pack rat and some Cotton rats that are inhabiting the biomes in the trail system as you walk along.

A Moment with Nature: Red-Tailed Hawk

A Moment with Nature

From the Western Heritage Nature Trail System

Featuring:  Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

The Red-tailed hawk is one of the most common hawks seen in southeastern New Mexico and can be found throughout North America. It is one of the largest hawks, weighing between 2 to 4 pounds. The females are a third larger than the males, and having a wing span of 56 inches.

When travelling local highways, dusty oil field roads, ranch and farm roads you will usually see several of these magnificent birds. They soar above open fields, in circular flight patterns. They are common birds seen sitting atop wooden power poles. Red-tailed hawks perch high up, they are watchers; their eyes are attentive to any ground movement meaning a possible meal.

Red-tailed hawks have broad, rounded wings and a short wide tail. The females are larger and sometimes are mistaken for a Bald Eagle in the distance.  Their general color pattern is a rich brown above and pale below, with streaks to blotches on their belly and wing underside feathers. The tail has a pale color below and cinnamon red above on mature hawks, which identifies this bird easily. The young immature hawks are brown and banded on the tail’s end.

Red-tailed hawks are carnivores (meat eaters) and they belong to a category of birds known as raptors—birds of prey. Raptors have strong, hooked beaks for tearing flesh; their feet have three toes pointing forward and one toe turned back. These toes function as claws, and they are called ‘talons’, which are long, curved and very sharp for clutching prey. The long talons kill the prey, and if too large to swallow whole, the Red-tailed hawk holds onto the prey with its talons and tears the prey apart with its beak into bite sized morsels.

Red-tailed hawks are common in our region of the country all year. They are not migratory birds, and fly south for the winter. Hawks that reside in Alaska and Canada will fly into the northern tier of states during winter, but this is to find plentiful food sources and then return to their normal ranges in spring. Red-tailed hawks love open country. Look for them along fields, meadows in forested areas, prairie groves and wide spread plains.

Located on the Western Heritage Nature Trail south side is a bronzed replica of a mature Red-tailed hawk that you can view up close. Per chance walking around the Nature Trail’s system you might actually see a Red-tailed hawk perched on the oil rig tower, flying overhead in circles, making a 2 to 3 second screeching sound and giving you the eye from above.

Bird Facts:

·       Red-tailed hawks along with other hawk species are ALL carnivores (meat eaters) and known as raptors.

·       The Red-tailed hawk is the most common bird of the buzzard hawk family.

·       Red-tailed hawk’s eyesight is 8 times as powerful as a human eye.

·       Talons are its main weapons, clutching and killing.

·       Up to 90% of the Red-tailed hawks diet consist of small rodents (not chickens, as this hawk is also known as the chicken hawk, an erroneous title).

·       Federal and State laws protect ALL RAPTORS (hawks, eagles, buzzards) with hefty finesand maybe even some jail time for convicted offenses.

Mulleins Weed

Question: Dr. Dirt, I have a weed growing in my yard that I do not know what it is and how to control them. I have never seen anything like this before. 

John

Tuesday, June 20, 2017 

Answer: John, thank you for dropping this off at the Western Heritage Museum’s reception desk. The weed you brought in for identification is called MULLEIN or sometimes known as WOOLY MULLEIN.

Mulleins can be found in Lea County. They usually have hitch-hiked into our area via baled hay, seeds embedded in dirt or mud from excursions to the mountains west of Lea County. You will find ample stands of mullein growing in the Pecos River Valley agricultural farm fields and wildland interfaces. It can be found up in the Guadalupe and Sacramental Mountains. 

The mullein plant grows rapidly from very tiny fine seeds and creates a stunning rosette of gray intensely covered gray hairs on the leaves and stems. Leaves are very soft to touch. They take two years to develop a flowering stalk that you brought to me today. They are much like thistles or sun flowers and shoot a stalk upwards from two feet to six feet in height. The terminal end is covered with light yellow honey-scented flowers; which are followed by small rounded capsules containing 100,000 to 180,000 of fine seeds on a parent plant. Wind, animal fur/hair, dirt removed from mullein growing sites will be infested with the fine seeds which will readily germinate in Lea County’s soil once sufficient moisture is present.

Control Measures: You can pull mulleins out easily if small; they do have a deep tap-root like a carrot. Broadleaf herbicides can be applied to the plant for a kill action. You must use a soap, adjuvant or spray oil with the herbicide mixture. The extremely hairy leaves will repel the weed spray and run-off the plant’s leaves and not killing the mullein. The spray additive to the herbicide will penetrate the hair and get the herbicide to the plant’s leaf surface. Spray the entire rosette on large plants and concentrate the spray mix to the center of the mullein’s growing point. They do not spread by underground roots or stems. This plant can be a noxious weed if left unchecked once it gets established.

Native Note: This plant can be utilized in a water wise/native landscape and it requires very little water to survive, hence the various locations in our mountain ranges. It does good as a backdrop specimen, the hairy leaves are attractive. Pollinators like the yellow flowers. English plant breeders have taken this particular plant and created flowering ornamental landscape mulleins with different color patterns.

Mulleins are used around the world as a medicinal plant to treat numerous health conditions and used in other forms and ways. It is totally a multi-use plant besides a common weed.

John, I hope this brief information helps you out on your new weed pests. 

Dr. Dirt 

Yellow Flower Trumpet Vine

June 17, 2017 

HELP Dr. Dirt! I've got this mess in the corner of my backyard. I have no idea what to do with it and honestly I'm scared of what I might find in there (insect- wise). I like the flowers but would like to see it look cleaner. 

Erin
Hobbs, NM

Erin’s Vine                                Honeysuckle Vine with pruning, and a trellis against brick wall.

Thank you, Erin for this interesting picture of the Yellow-flowered form of Trumpet Vine.

Answer: From my observation looking into your photo and the background details. I would recommend cutting the trumpet vine back in height and sides coming inward. Whack the vines a few times first with a broom, etc., wear gloves of course and watch for pests or other critters. I would definitely remove a lot of the vinery growth up from the ground. I would install a heavy-duty trellis between the trumpet vine and the fence. Trumpet vines are an aggressive grower and weighty. I would utilize the fence as a support mechanism to hold the weight as the vine grows and becomes larger. You would need to train the vine’s runners to attach itself to the trellis; once established onto trellis the vine will take off on its own.

Under-cutting the draping ground hugging tendrils and runners will give you a cleaner look and shape to the whole plant. Yes, the photo looks messy and could have some critters living within the tangled mess. But a good hair-cut and selecting good runner vines and attaching them to the trellis will give you a more manicured looking plant. The yellow flowered form is NOT as aggressive as the orange flowered type that can take over a backyard landscape.

Dr. Dirt would be happy to assist you in the your gardening endeavors and demonstrate how to cut the vine and do the proper uplift towards a trellised look. What is out-of-bounds now can be brought back into a controlled growth pattern with the yellow flowered trumpet vine.

These vines are great for watching hummingbirds and Sphinx moths feeding off the nectar-laden flowers.

A great pic and garden question Erin, I hope my brief answer gives you a direction. And I do make house calls for my patients.

Dr. Dirt 

Ocotillo Care

June 5, 2017


Question: I planted an ocotillo recently and have been watering it every day to give the roots a good start. Do I need to feed it? If so what? I had a little bone meal and used that. 

Bob
Lea County, NM

Answer: Many Ocotillos (Oc’s) in Lea County succumb to the local landfills. Number one enemy, too much TLC (tender loving care) given to them and that comes in the form of over-watering Oc’s. Now depending on your local soil, if it is real sandy and loose, YES, maybe a couple of watering’s a week in high heat and wind. If you have red clay or gray clay soils then water sparingly, once a week to 10-days, and do water deep as the scraggly roots come off of the Oc’s center stem. Remember, where you see these desert natives growing naturally, on the steppes/foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains, they get whatever rains come along, drenching’s or light showers. They are basically rooted in four inches or less of soil, and grow into cracks of the underlying rock formations. Then they have the blistering summer heat and winds to contend with...a true survivor.

So, when they are dug up and transported to other areas of the state we need to replicate the soils and growing conditions as best as we can similar to their natural environment. This is where TLC kicks-in way too much!

Clay soils should have some coarse sand and/or gravel added for drainage, wet roots and soggy ground is a death knell.

No fertilizers for the first year, our soil, your soil will be nutrient rich compared to that spot on the slope of the mountainside where it was growing. If you added bone meal, that’s cool and okay, it is very low in nutrients but stay away from the commercial brands for now. Let this native get re-established, the second biggest problem is the plant collectors who hack- off all the scraggly roots trying to extract them from the rock ledges. Most are sold with very little major roots and usually NO feeder roots are attached. These underground anchors are foremost and foundational to getting your Ocotillo to live. With me not seeing the actual root structure, I am giving you a broad care scenario.

If you found this Ocotillo with good root structure then you will be rewarded as these plants are long-lived and will add much growth and vibrant color as it matures. Best yet, is the beauty, the form, its uniqueness and the brightly fire-torch ends that are hummingbird magnets and with night-time large moths feeding on the rich nectar they produce.

Bob, I hope this helps you out and you have a successful transplanted Ocotillo to admire for years. 

Dr. Dirt 

Arborists in Lea County

June 4, 2017

Question: Are there any Area Certified Arborists for pruning our trees in Lea County? P.S. I really appreciated the class on raised beds you and the other WHM Horticulture Society members put on back in April. The hollyhock giveaway wasn't bad either! Your class and the words of wisdom helped me put in a nice pavestone raised bed this year. 

Kristina
Lea County, NM

Answer: Kristina, unfortunately, we do not have anyone in Hobbs/Lea County that is a Certified Arborist. However, we do have a local guy who comes to Hobbs and Lea County in the fall to early spring who is Nationally Certified and a credentialed arborist. I refer people who need his help and use him on tree- trimming project on the NMJC Campus grounds. He does a great job trimming and pruning trees, Dr. Dirt is one picky horticultural professional when it comes to trees and their proper care and canopy maintenance.

That person is Ben Maddox, owner of Outdoor Solutions LLC, who is ISA Certified Arborist license #83397. He resides in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico. Call him at 575-776-2275.

Kristina, Thank You, for the kind words and acknowledgement of some good horticultural training being received by local gardeners.

Let’s get growing, 

Dr. Dirt 

Artichoke Plant

May 19, 2017

Question: I have an artichoke plant; I have never seen it flower. It looks like I have an artichoke on the plant, don't plants have to flower in order to fruit?

Kelly

Lea County, NM

Answer:  Yes, you have a young artichoke plant that is maturing and coming into its flowering (fruit) process. On artichokes you are eating the terminal growing point, which is the vegetative head of the artichoke.  If this is left on the plant the artichoke itself becomes the terminal flower.  The green artichoke head is tight in the bud form and this bud is what is cut and eaten. Leaving the flowering head will dramatically change in a few days as the bud now expands and fills out inside with thousands of individual stamens/ovaries to bloom an electric brilliant blue flower. Each filament contained in the artichoke head will produce a seed, with a parachute end much like the dandelion seed head. As time goes by the flowering process will cease and the head will flatten out and begin to dry-out for seeds to be blown away.

Gold finches, purple-headed finches and some of the song sparrows will feast on the seeds if left on the plant. The head can be cut for dried flower arranging materials.

Artichokes will basal multiply creating side shoot plants and they will send up artichokes to eat and flower. The first artichokes of the year are the largest and then will be smaller on the side branches off the mother plant.

Let them bloom out. They are amazing in colors, they will attract attention from passerbies and they will want to know what alien flower you are growing.

Get out and grow something!

Dr. Dirt