A small Ord’s kangaroo rat held a sunflower seed between its paws and nibbled cautiously while it squatted close to the base of the tall plant. She walked slowly in the loose gravel that bordered the hot asphalt road, stopping often to touch dead insects with her pedipalps before continuing on her journey. She preferred live prey. The rat twitched its tail and nervously took another bite from the seed. The darkness prevented the kangaroo rat from seeing her approach, but the small mammal sensed danger. She brushed against the edge of the asphalt and quickly moved away from the heat. The surface of the semiarid desert highway reached 150 degrees during the day and would cool down enough during the evening to attract rattlesnakes. She didn’t like the sudden change in surface temperatures and stayed on the gravel near the low tumbleweeds and sunflowers. The kangaroo rat finished the sunflower seed it had been eating and reached over for another one on the ground nearby just as her right pedipalp touched the brush end of its tail.
