^ U/ Y) 



WITH UNCLE SAII'S KATUEALISTS 



RIIZIASI] Friday, Sept, 23, 1932 



FOR BROADCAST USE ONLY 



Speaking Time 10 Hinutes, 



ANNOUNCE HilT : No'- let's again spend a icvr minutes wit-i Uncle Sam's Naturalists 

 of the United States Department of Aj^riculture, We vzill join them for a peep at 

 some of the interesting rodents on the ranges of our Groat Plains country/. 



We ride out on the range with Ilr. Vernon Bailey, of the United States Bio- 

 logical Survey, who tells us a few things ahout kangaroo rate - "beautiful little 

 animals. 



We will have to he careful where wo ride. As any cow nan will tell you, it 

 is no pleasant matter riding over ground where many kangaroo rats have made mounds. 

 Of course, some of the kangaroo rats make "big mounds that arc easy to see and avoid. 

 But there is real danger if you ride over low mouiids without seeing them, T.icro 

 the "burrows enter the ground without noticeable mounds, your horse may brcair 

 throtigh and drop a foot or two in the ground without warning, and that may -lot he 

 any joke for cither you or the horse if you arc riding fast. 



Those mounds honey comhed with passages are not only the homes "built "by the 

 kangaroo rats, "but also their storehouses where they soi.ietimes store a "bushel or 

 more of seeds for future use. Kangaroo rats not only la^'' up stores for winter, 

 "but also provide food for long dry shells when little or nothing grows. All the 

 kangaroo rats are dainty feeders. They shell out the seeds and eat only the clean 

 inner kernels. They gather the seed from many small local plants, tuck the seed 

 into their cheek pockets, and then return to their mounds or dens, to eat. One 

 movement of the kangaroo rat's hands pressing forward on those elastic poclcets on 

 the outside of the lower jaws, and the pockets are emptied, TThat the kangaroo rat 

 doesn't eat at the time it stores for future use. 



On most of their rsmge, the kangaroo rats don't come in contact with any farm 

 crops. In some places, however, they do 'larvest grain and carry off a considerable 

 amount of it, two teaspoons full at a time in those cheek pockets, each of which, 

 in the bigjer kinds, holds a little over a teaspoonful. But these little seed 

 toters are fast workers and nia*.:e many trips. 



In ordinary years, Ilr. Bailey fifure'^, thoy probably do very little dai.Tage to 

 the range, but in dry years when seeds of grasses and other forage plants arc 

 scarce they may take a good part of the available seed and leave very little for 

 reproduction. 



Seeds are not all they eat. When we come to a little rise in the ground, we 

 find a lot of bare spots dotting the mesa, Tiose bare -oatches arc where some of 

 the largest and "landsomest of our kangaroo rats. New Mexican banner-tails, 2i?,vo 

 d-ug -up some of the best range grasses by the roots. They also carry those grass 

 roots off to their homes and storehouses. 



ooOoo 



