So far as their reactions toward man are concerned, kangaroo rats are
gentle and make confiding and interesting pets; this is especially the
case with _merriami_. This characteristic is the more surprising in view
of the fact that they will fight each other so readily and so viciously,
and yet probably it is explained in part by their method of fighting.
They do not appear to use their teeth toward each other, but fight by
leaping in the air and striking with the powerful hind feet, reminding
one most forcibly of a pair of game cocks, facing each other and
guarding in the same manner. Sometimes they carry on a sparring match
with their fore feet. Biting, if done at all, is only a secondary means
of combat. When taken in hand, even for the first time, they will use
their teeth only in the event that they are wounded. The jaws are not
powerful, and though the animals may lay hold of a bare finger, with the
apparent intention of biting, usually they do not succeed in drawing
blood. As Bailey says (1905, 148), they are gentle and timid, and, like
rabbits, depend upon flight and their burrows for protection.
The well-traveled trails elsewhere described (p. 10) indicate a degree
of sociability difficult to explain in connection with their pugnacity
toward each other. While three or four individuals may sometimes be
trapped at a single mound, more than two are seldom so caught, and most
often only one in one night. Trapping on successive nights at one mound
often yields the larger number, yet in some cases the number is
explained by the fact that two or three nearly mature young are taken,
and the capture of several individuals at a single mound can not be
taken to indicate that all are from the one den. Our investigations tend
strongly to the conclusion that only one adult occupies a mound, except
during the period when the young are in the parental (or maternal) den.
In the gassing and excavating of 25 or more mounds we have never found
more than one animal in a den, except in one instance, and then the two
present were obviously young animals.