Stone Keepers

Rats are known to be one of the most adaptable and intelligent species, thriving in various environments around the world. Recently, I heard about a specific species of rat known locally as the stone rat (in native: கல் எலி). Interestingly these rats are not considered harmful and are said to inhabit areas near irrigation fields where their burrows are often surrounded by pebbles of stones.

My curiosity increased by the lack of information and images of this elusive species on the internet. Over the course of two weeks and a search spanning twenty kilometers, I encountered numerous locals who confirmed the existence of these rats. They were giving me details and myths around the species which was quite interesting for a rat. Some said crossing over the stones of burrow will curse you with wounds and some said it has no tails, its black and so on. Some dated back evidence from 300bc literature’s of siddhars exciting my wildest imagination.

Among the ancient Tamil Siddhars, Bogar stands out not just as an alchemist but as a sage who encoded spiritual wisdom in the symbols of nature. In his cryptic verses he speaks of the “kall-eli” — the stone rat — as a creature capable of opening locked doors, guarding hidden roots and appearing only on sacred nights.

However, sightings have become increasingly rare over the past decade due to the excessive agriculture and practice of removing these stones from the fields.

Despite my efforts, I couldn't find any clues about neither the appearance of the rats nor their burrows. Then one day while returning from search I randomly stopped at middle of nowhere to check for burrows as their were so many stones and there it is. Finally stumbled upon a burrow and found several of different sizes within few hundred meter radius. It looked like someone wantedly picked stones and decorated it. However the quest was only half-complete as I still haven't seen what the rats look like.

Every day I observed the stones around the burrow being rearranged, indicating the rats' activity. Attempting to capture them during the daytime seems impossible as rats are nocturnal creatures. But those patterns of how burrows arranged kept fueling my curiosity and questioning, How does a rat pick stones of different size? How this species evolved? What's going on inside his head?

I had to ride almost twenty kilometers from my home to the spot I discovered and standing in a place of nowhere really brings unwanted attentions of the nearby passers at nights. So the only possibility was to setup camera with motion trigger. Which is a different plot that I have been working on it for two months already and this was right moment to test on field.

But there was other challenges like security of camera as it’s a place of nowhere yet some drunk people find this as perfect hangout spot so keeping by ten at night and picking back by five early in the morning is the solution, that is forty kilometer per trip. I also had weather surprising me with rain so I made camera cover with old raincoat (yes looks as cheap as possible, an alternate way of camouflage from humans). Here comes the fun part of camera trapping you have to predict the movement of species that you no clue of and strategically choose the camera angle depending on the terrain to capture a clear focus (on something that you have no clue of). As tripod and higher angle seems more logical but factors such as sensor sensitivity over distance and heavy rainy winds were threatening at times.

After three days of setting up, I only captured false-triggered images of nothing but the stones had been rearranged. On the fourth day while I was preparing set up at night near the burrow, the rat emerged out and stood staring at me then ran into the fields. A moment of surprise and solution sparked within a split second slapping some charm on my face. As it was full moon he was visible enough that I realized that the small size and agility of the rats were causing the trigger.

After tuning my sensor setup, I finally managed to capture images of this species picking and arranging stones around its burrow over two weeks as there were so many burrows to test. These species belong to the Mus genus, so he is a mouse scientifically, not a rat. They have evolved a unique behavior of using stones to open and close their burrows like a door as a protective mechanism against predators, also to create micro climate conditions. This burrows have two openings and has a room inside filled with stones as bed.

This the only observational photograph ever taken on this elusive species. Regardless of the outcome I enjoyed this little chase which led me to explore places and take on solo night trips.

It's fascinating to observe how a mouse could collect pebbles of stones to build their own home and storing it for future use demonstrating a intelligent way of life. How every animal have evolved in such a way of establishing relationships with their surroundings but in contrast we often treat our Earth like a dumping ground, littering on daily basis with plastics. How simple belief on one species can save them but alternatively taking their home with agriculture? We fight for equality but never seems to grasp the idea of life it seems.