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Meet the culprit behind a 'strange prickly pear stash' found near Colorado National Monument

Some masons found a "strange prickly pear stash at the bottom of a dry stack wall." Naturally, the National Park Service set up a camera to investigate.
Credit: Courtesy National Park Service

Chalk this one up to a there's-something-you-don't-see-every-day moment.

That was certainly the case for a team of masons working near the Colorado National Monument when they saw a "strange prickly pear stash at the bottom of a dry stack wall."

Credit: Courtesy National Park Service

That's according to a Facebook post in which the Colorado National Monument describes the stash as "perfectly severed from the plant, and stacked up around this pile of loose rocks."

Park rangers thought that was pretty strange, and they set up a wildlife cam to investigate.

The culprit: a woodrat (AKA packrat).

Credit: Courtesy National Park Service

This little guy "moved several dozen pads in the span of 2 weeks," according to the Facebook post.

Credit: Courtesy National Park Service

Colorado has two species fo woodrats: the Mexican woodrat (Neotoma mexicana) and the bushy-tailed woodrat (Neotoa cinerea), according to the Norther Colorado Plateau Network.

The woodrat brought in pads from all around the surrounding area.

The Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near Grand Junction. It's characterized by its deep canyons and sandstone rock formations.

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