Does it have something in it? Nachman has been collecting mice, unharmed, in traps. So what happened to the pocket mice that found themselves on this new terrain? When I accompany biologist Michael Nachman onto the lava, it doesn't take long to find out. And most of those predators are visual predators. They're eaten by foxes, and coyotes, and rattlesnakes, and certainly by owls and maybe even occasionally hawks. These mice are the Snickers bar of the desert. But on dark lava, the same fur makes the mouse stand out, attracting the many creatures that see it as food. On the desert sands, the rock pocket mouse blends in perfectly, its light-colored fur concealing it from predators. And we've come here to the Valley of Fire in New Mexico, a battlefield, to find one of the tiniest soldiers and what it can teach us about how evolution works. In the complex battle of life, one of the constant struggles is between seeing and not being seen, the evolutionary game of hide and seek. As the molten rock cooled, it darkened, leaving any creature dependent on camouflage in serious trouble. The eruptions spewed a river of lava more than 40 miles long, across the desert. Patches of black rock interrupt the sand, remnants of volcanic eruptions that occurred about 1000 years ago. Yet here in New Mexico's Valley of Fire, the landscape changes dramatically. Across the American Southwest, golden deserts, dotted by cacti and brush, stretch for miles.

Biointeractive rock pocket mouse