RIP Mr. Woodrat
We spent Feb 25th making our way through Joshua Tree National Park en route to Anza. One of the most memorable things that I saw on that day was the poor little woodrat that had been impaled on the teddy bear cholla. I had walked right past it on my way into the cholla garden but was told to look for it on my way out and oh boy did I see it. It was a very dramatic scene with its little mouth agape, arms splayed and wedged into the cholla at about eye level. I had remembered from the species presentations at the beginning of the class that loggerheaded shrikes were known to impale their prey and leave them for later. When I posted my observation on iNat someone left a comment that the woodrat was probably left there by a loggerheaded shrike which lined up with what I thought had happened. I'm kind of confused how this is possibly though considering that the woodrat was kind of big and from my understanding loggerheaded shrikes are relatively small, but all other signs point to the loggerheaded shrike as the predator. I thought it was an extra memorable experience because as I was standing there taking pictures of it I had a number of groups come up and ask me what I saw, when I told them what I was looking at they each had similar reactions of disgust and curiosity, and some even took pictures along with me.
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