Alternate name: Eastern Woodrat, Packrat
Family: Muridae, Mice and Rats view all from this family
Description Grayish brown above; white or grayish below. Bicolored tail is less than half total length. Throat hairs gray at base. L 12 1/4–17 3/8" (310–444 mm); T 5 1/8 –8" (129–203 mm); HF 1 1/2 –1 5/8" (37–40 mm); Wt 7 1/8–16 oz (200–455 g).
Endangered Status The Key Largo Woodrat, a subspecies of the Florida Woodrat, is on the U.S. Endangered Species List. It is classified as endangered in Florida, where it lives in Key Largo. This rodent resides in a special south Florida habitat called a tropical hardwood hammock. The destruction and modification of these habitats to make way for residential development is the main cause of the woodrat's decline. Development in the Florida Keys continues to threaten this subspecies.
Similar Species Very similar Allegheny Woodrat, distinguished by genetic and skull characteristics, is found north of Tennessee River. Bushy-tailed Woodrat has flattened, squirrel-like tail. Southern Plains Woodrat is steel-gray above. White-throated and Stephen’s woodrats have white throat.
Breeding Breeds year-round.
Habitat Rocky cliffs, caves, tumbled boulders in s Illinois and elsewhere when available; Osage orange and other hedges and wooded low areas throughout South.
Range Southern South Dakota and n Nebraska; e Colorado, s Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, south through Oklahoma and e Texas, and southeastward through southern states to mid-peninsular Florida.
Discussion The Florida Woodrat, once combined with the Allegheny Woodrat as a single species called the Eastern Woodrat, feeds mostly on green vegetation, but also eats various fruits, nuts, fungi, ferns, and seeds. It eats food on-site for most of the summer, but in September and October it caches food in galleries in the top of its stick house, usually constructed in a protected location. When built in a cave, the house may be open at the top. The lodges are quite waterproof and well constructed, moderating temperature extremes. There is one woodrat per house, with the houses distributed over the available habitat; this tends to spread out the rats, reducing competition. In the South, this species often lives in hollow trees or holes in the ground, making large nests of sticks, leaves, or rubbish along the banks of streams, in dense tangles, or in trees. In Alabama, it builds bulky nests in Osage orange hedges. Young woodrats cling tenaciously to their mother’s teats; if alarmed, the mother will drag the whole litter along as she flees. The Florida Woodrat has a host of predators, including snakes, owls, weasels, and Bobcats, but only the snakes and sinuous weasels can get to a woodrat while it is inside its house.
