Post by L Roebuck on Jul 8, 2007 7:09:50 GMT -5
Wayne's World: Rats! Not only are they cute, they're nearly extinct
Allegheny woodrats' claim to being New Yorkers goes way back — a woodrat jaw found in a cave near Albany has been carbon-dated to 20,000 years ago.
They once scampered across the Shawangunks, Storm King Mountain and West Point.
Now they're extinct around here, and, but for a handful of rat-crazed biologists, the woodrat's New York plight is about as well-known as research on worm trails.
Which isn't fair.
If politicians back-slapped themselves silly last week when the bald eagle flew off the federal endangered species list, let's have at least a few words said over the woodrat's New York demise and pray for its long-shot return from the dead.
THERE'S A FLICKER of hope down at the New Jersey-New York border, where a toehold woodrat kingdom survives at the bottom of the Palisades cliffs, a land right out Middle Earth. I joined some head-lamped scientists too gone over woodrats to care about falling in a trek about 300 feet down steep, rock-strewn switchback trails to find the nocturnal rats. Nobody is home this night. But we find woodrat scat.
Full Article
Allegheny woodrats' claim to being New Yorkers goes way back — a woodrat jaw found in a cave near Albany has been carbon-dated to 20,000 years ago.
They once scampered across the Shawangunks, Storm King Mountain and West Point.
Now they're extinct around here, and, but for a handful of rat-crazed biologists, the woodrat's New York plight is about as well-known as research on worm trails.
Which isn't fair.
If politicians back-slapped themselves silly last week when the bald eagle flew off the federal endangered species list, let's have at least a few words said over the woodrat's New York demise and pray for its long-shot return from the dead.
THERE'S A FLICKER of hope down at the New Jersey-New York border, where a toehold woodrat kingdom survives at the bottom of the Palisades cliffs, a land right out Middle Earth. I joined some head-lamped scientists too gone over woodrats to care about falling in a trek about 300 feet down steep, rock-strewn switchback trails to find the nocturnal rats. Nobody is home this night. But we find woodrat scat.
Full Article