Eyes in the sky to monitor Kangaroo Rats.
By comparing the photos to 30 years of satellite images being released this month by the U.S. Geological Survey, researchers hope to better understand how the population has fluctuated in response to climate change and as the arrival of state and federal canal water turned the arid San Joaquin Valley into a patchwork of intensely cultivated farms and forced Giant Kangaroo Rats to concentrate on higher ground.
Talk about a tight circle of life ...
For food, they pile seeds from native grasses in circles outside their burrows, which provide shelter for the endangered San Joaquin antelope squirrel and blunt-nosed lizards.
Their fat five-inch bodies are a favored source of food for the endangered kit fox.
High rainfall encourages the growth of taller nonnative grasses, which overrun the shorter grasses that kangaroo rats depend on for food. Less food means fewer offspring.
When kangaroo rats decline, so do the endangered native plant and animal species that depend on them for survival, the researchers say.
Welcome to the concept of ecological interdependence.
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