One way to assess risk perception is to put out feeding trays and measure the amount of food left behind under different scenarios. More food remaining equals more fear....the rats won't risk it for the biscuit!

Before I can do that though, I have to find areas where cotton rats are really active. The last few weeks, I've been deploying some plates with seeds in different sections of my study site to see where the most eager participants are!

Much of the surrounding habitat is wet prairie and freshwater marsh. When you hear "marsh" many people think of the tidal marshes near the coast, but most marshes in North America are actually non-tidal! If its usually wet and has mostly soft-stemmed vegetation, its a marsh.