K Rats

The desert grasslands of extreme southeast Arizona are peppered with rodent condos, many of them the work of kangaroo-rats. I’m still waiting for a good glimpse of the largest of them, the banner-tailed kangaroo-rat, aptly styled spectabilis in its scientific epithet.

Hoffmeister says that if you stomp around a bit near the burrows, you can often hear the residents thumping back at you from inside with their outsized hind feet. I might try it someday, but then again, it sounds like an awfully good way to get a snakebite in the ear.