Bushy-tailed woodrat | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Cricetidae |
Subfamily: | Neotominae |
Genus: | Neotoma |
Species: | N. cinerea |
Binomial name | |
Neotoma cinerea (Ord, 1815) | |
The bushy-tailed woodrat, or packrat (Neotoma cinerea) is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae found in Canada and the United States. [2] Its natural habitats are boreal forests, temperate forests, dry savanna, temperate shrubland, and temperate grassland.
The bushy-tailed woodrat is the original "pack rat", the species in which the trading habit is most pronounced. It has a strong preference for shiny objects and will drop whatever it may be carrying in favor of a coin or a spoon. [3] [4]
Bushy-tailed woodrats can be identified by their large, rounded ears, and their long, bushy tails. They are usually brown, peppered with black hairs above with white undersides and feet. The top coloration may vary from buff to almost black. The tail is squirrel-like - bushy, and flattened from base to tip. [3] [5]
These woodrats are good climbers and have sharp claws. They use their long tails for balance while climbing and jumping, [3] and for added warmth. [6]
These rodents are sexually dimorphic, with the average male about 50% larger than the average female. Its adult length is 11 to 18 in (28 to 46 cm), half of which is its tail. Its weight is 1.3 lb (590 g).
The bushy-tailed woodrat is the largest and most cold-tolerant species of woodrat. [6]
Bushy-tailed woodrats are found in western North America, ranging from arctic Canada down to northern Arizona and New Mexico, and as far east as the western portions of the Dakotas and Nebraska. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Bushy-tailed woodrats occupy a wide range of habitats, from boreal forests to deserts. Their preferred habitat is in and around rocky places, so they are often found along cliffs, canyons, talus slopes, and open rocky fields. They readily adapt to abandoned buildings and mines. [5] [6] [7]
They can be found from sea level up to 14,000 feet (4,300 m), but they become increasingly restricted to higher elevations toward the southern end of their range. [8]
These woodrats do not do as well in old-growth forests. They are found with greater frequency and in higher densities in more open habitats.
The bushy-tailed woodrat prefers green vegetation (leaves, needles, shoots), but it will also consume twigs, fruits, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, and some animal matter. One study [7] in southeastern Idaho found grasses, cactus, vetch, sagebrush, and mustard plants in their diets, as well as a few arthropods. In drier habitats, they will concentrate on succulent plants.
These rodents get most of their water from the plants that they eat. [9]
Males establish dominance in their territories through scent marking and physical confrontations. Fights consist largely of biting and scratching, and may result in serious injury. [4] [6]
Breeding occurs in spring and summer (May through August), with a gestation period of about five weeks. A female may have one or two litters each year. Litters can range in size from two to six, with a typical litter size of three. The females have only four mammary glands, so larger litters most likely have higher attrition rates. Females have been observed breeding as soon as 12 hours after giving birth, and may be pregnant with one litter while nursing another. [3] [6]
Gestation period in captivity is 27–32 days. Newborns weigh around 15 g (0.53 oz). Eyes open at about 15 days old, and weaning occurs at 26–30 days.
Males leave the mother at 2½ months. Females often stay in the same area as the mother, with an overlapping range. This is a clear exception to their territorial natures, and this relationship is not currently well understood. The daughters may share food caches with the mother, increasing their likelihood of survival, and the higher female density of the area may also help attract males. [6] [7]
Females breed for the first time when they are yearlings. [6]
Bushy-tailed woodrats are active throughout the year. While primarily nocturnal, they can occasionally be seen during the day. They are usually solitary and very territorial.
These woodrats collect debris in natural crevices, and abandoned man-made structures when available, into large, quasistructures for which the archaeologists' term 'midden' has been borrowed. Middens consist of plant material, feces, and other materials which are solidified with crystallized urine. Woodrat urine contains large amounts of dissolved calcium carbonate and calcium oxalates due to the high oxalate content of many of the succulent plants upon which these animals feed. [6]
An important distinction to make is between middens and nests. Nests are the areas where the animal is often found and where the females raise their young. [6] Nests are usually within the midden, but regional variations to this rule occur. When not contained within the midden, the nest is usually concealed in a rocky crevice behind a barricade of sticks. [3]
In coniferous forests, the woodrat may build its house as high as 50 feet (15 m) up a tree. [3]
Bushy-tailed woodrats do not hibernate. They build several food caches, which they use during the winter months. [6]
The bushy-tailed woodrat engages in hind foot-drumming when alarmed. It will also drum when undisturbed, producing a slow, tapping sound. [6]
Bushy-tailed woodrats are preyed upon by many predators, including: spotted owls, bobcats, black bears, coyotes, foxes, weasels, Snakes, martens, and hawks. The sheltered conditions offered by the midden are often used by reptiles during the colder months. The rattlesnake, normally a predator of the woodrat in the warmer months, is a common lodger. [10]
The desert woodrat is a species of pack rat native to desert regions of western North America.
The eastern meadow vole, sometimes called the field mouse or meadow mouse, is a North American vole found in eastern Canada and the United States. Its range extends farther south along the Atlantic coast.
The North American water vole or just water vole is the largest North American vole. It is found in the northwestern United States and southern parts of western Canada. This animal has been historically considered a member of genus Arvicola, but molecular evidence demonstrates that it is more closely related to North American Microtus species. Water voles are on the USDA Forest Service Region 2 sensitive species list because they maintain very small populations and there is high concern that their required habitat may be declining.
The Neotominae are a subfamily of the family Cricetidae. They consist of four tribes, 16 genera, and many species of New World rats and mice, predominantly found in North America. Among them are the well-known deer mice, white-footed mice, packrats, and grasshopper mice.
The bank vole is a small vole with red-brown fur and some grey patches, with a tail about half as long as its body. A rodent, it lives in woodland areas and is around 100 millimetres (3.9 in) in length. The bank vole is found in much of Europe and in northwestern Asia. It is native to Great Britain but not to Ireland, where it has been accidentally introduced, and has now colonised much of the south and southwest.
Peromyscus maniculatus is a rodent native to eastern North America. It is most commonly called the eastern deer mouse; when formerly grouped with the western deer mouse, it was referred to as the North American deermouse and is fairly widespread across most of North America east of the Mississippi River, with the major exception being the lowland southeastern United States.
The eastern woodrat, also known as the Florida woodrat or bush rat, is a pack rat native to the central and Eastern United States. It constructs large dens that may serve as nests for many generations and stores food in outlying caches for the winter. While widespread and not uncommon, it has declined or disappeared in several areas.
Ord's kangaroo rat is a kangaroo rat native to western North America, specifically the Great Plains and the Great Basin, with its range extending from extreme southern Canada to central Mexico.
The Allegheny woodrat, is a species of "pack rat" in the genus Neotoma. Once believed to be a subspecies of the eastern woodrat, extensive DNA analysis has proven it to be a distinct species.
The white-throated woodrat is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found from central Mexico north to Utah and Colorado in the United States. It is primarily a western species in the United States, extending from central Texas west to southeastern California. Populations east of the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas, previously considered to be variants of the white-throated woodrat, have since 1988 been assigned to the white-toothed woodrat.
The dusky-footed woodrat is a species of nocturnal rodent in the family Cricetidae. They are commonly called "packrats" or "trade rats" and build large, domed dens that can reach several feet in height. Coyotes and other predators will attempt to prey on these rodents by laying waste to the dens, but the sheer volume of material is usually dissuasive. Occasionally, dusky-footed woodrats will build satellite dens in trees. Although these animals are solitary, except in the mating season, dens are frequently found in clusters of up to several dozen, forming rough "communities". The mating system in this species appears to be variable, with promiscuity most generally at high population densities and monogamy at lower densities.
The Southern Plains woodrat is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found in northwest Mexico and in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas in the United States. The subspecies Neotoma micropus leucophaea: White Sands woodrat, is white in coloration and found only at White Sands National Park in New Mexico.
Stephen's woodrat is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae found in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the United States.
The California deermouse or California mouse is a species of rodent in the subfamily Neotominae in the family Cricetidae. It is the only species in the Peromyscus californicus species group. It is found in northwestern Mexico and central to southern California. It is the largest Peromyscus species in the United States.
The forest giant squirrel or Stanger's squirrel is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae found in Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and plantations.
The red-tailed chipmunk is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in Alberta and British Columbia in Canada and Montana, Idaho and Washington in the United States.
The big-eared woodrat is a nocturnal rodent of the woodrat genus Neotoma, in the family Cricetidae. Closely related to, and formerly included in the species Neotoma fuscipes, it is endemic to western North America and occurs west and south of the Salinas Valley from the California Coast Ranges south of Monterey Bay to northern Baja California, as well as in the Sierra Nevada, extending north to the South Fork American River.
A pack rat or packrat, also called a woodrat or trade rat, are any species in the North and Central American rodent genus Neotoma. Pack rats have a rat-like appearance, with long tails, large ears, and large, black eyes. Pack rats are noticeably larger than deer mice, harvest mice, and grasshopper mice, and are usually somewhat larger than cotton rats.
The Key Largo cotton mouse is a subspecies of rodent in the family Cricetidae. The subspecies is endemic to Key Largo in the upper Florida Keys. It is a slightly larger mouse with a more reddish color than other mouse species from mainland Florida. The Key Largo cotton mouse can breed throughout the year and has an average life expectancy of five months.
Neotoma findleyi, or Findley's woodrat, is an extinct species of rodent that was found in New Mexico. It lived during the Pleistocene, going extinct during the Rancholabrean.