We just brought it six audio recorders from across campus at #LincolnUniversityNZ, which students had laid out as part of our long-term monitoring of campus birds.
To our surprise, and annoyance, some pesky varmint has done its best to gnaw right through one of them. I've not seen anything like it before, and we've had these units left out in all sorts of wild places.
Either it's one very hungry rat, or a rat that particularly likes the taste of plastic. Maybe if we can catch it and breed it, there's a potential for plastic recycling rat farms.
A photo of one end of an audio recorder with the plastic gnawed right through, almost all the way around the unit, exposing the SD card and electronics. It's definitely not waterproof now!
A photo of six audio recorders sitting on my office chair. They're long thin black plastic units, with a microphone at one end covered in sponge and protected by a metal grill, and the rest of the unit is solid plastic inside of which are the batteries and electronics.
This is the AR4 model designed and manufactured by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.