I hear a rat

While I was in Florida, I witnessed a very different midwinter's feast than that enjoyed by the flocks of birds here in Eastern Washington.  There, the fare was a bounty of bright red fruits, freshly ripened on the Christmas palms (Adonidia merrillii).

Ripe fruits of a Christmas palm (Adonidia merrillii).

However, during the day, these fruits did not seem to attract any attention from consumers.  It was only at night, while I was out searching for frogs, that I heard noises coming from the vicinity of the fruits.  Looking up, I caught a brief glimpse of a furry body as it scrambled away through the canopy.  I thought it might have been an opossum, since we had seen them in the yard in previous years.  The next night, I spooked the creature again before I could get a better look.  Finally, on the third night, I approached the trees more cautiously -- and saw that the creature was definitely not an opossum.

* To see this video in high definition (1080p), you may need to (1) click "YouTube" to watch on the YouTube website and (2) change the settings at the bottom of the video screen.

The creature that had been feasting on the palm fruits each night was a rat.  Although the poor lighting makes it difficult to see many distinguishing features, the rat looks (at least to me) more like an Eastern Woodrat (Neotoma floridana) than any of the other rodents listed as living in Florida.  The only problem is that the species is thought to be locally extinct this far south in the state!