A Pack Rat in Voleville

 

Pack rats, also known as wood rats, are found throughout the American West, from deserts to forests. They are known for building large, complex nests called middens, made from twigs, leaves, and other debris. These rodents have a diverse diet, feeding on seeds, fruits, leaves, and even small animals. One of their more unique behaviors is their obsession with collecting and hoarding shiny objects. They will often swap items they carry for something more appealing—especially something shiny.

When I was a young boy, my father had a cabin in the mountains of western Montana that was overrun by pack rats. On several occasions, I left fishing lures on a ledge on the cabin’s porch after an afternoon of fishing on the nearby Thompson River. The following morning, instead of finding my lures, I found small pine cones left by the pack rats that had pilfered my tackle during the night.

The other day, something flashed past Desiree as she climbed out of the hot tub. “It was pretty big,” she assured me. “I think it was a pack rat.”

We don’t need a pack rat setting up shop at our house and stealing our shiny stuff. Operating on Desiree’s assumption that she had seen a pack rat, I set the live trap. Sure enough, within a couple of hours, I captured one. I took a few pictures of the rat before driving it a distance down the road to release it in a gully we have named Voleville, due to the number of voles I’ve similarly released there.

—Mitchell Hegman