- Following are Life History Accounts only - Brush Deermouse Botta's Pocket Gopher Bushy-tailed Woodrat Cactus Deermouse Canyon Deermouse Desert Pocket Mouse Desert Woodrat Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel Great Basin Pocket Mouse House Mouse Little Pocket Mouse Long-tailed Pocket Mouse Mohave Ground Squirrel North American Deer Mouse Regardless of the color on the rest of the body, however, the animal's underparts and feet are always white, while the otherwise pale fur on the throat region is gray at its base. Desert woodrats have a narrow snout, long whiskers, and relatively long ears that are almost the length of the hind feet. Getting into everything from attics to car engines, stealing their ‘treasures’, damaging electrical wiring, and creating general noisy havoc can easily cause t… Niche: The desert woodrat is a moderate-sized folivore/granivore. [2] Nests are constructed of dried vegetation, usually fibrous grass parts or shredded stems. The lifespan of Woodrat & Reproduction . Each litter may contain approximately five young ones. The tail is distinctly bicolored, and has more hair, and fewer visible scales, than the tails of brown rats. #hamsters #rodents #pets. Neotoma lepida is aggressively solitary, although this aggressiveness apparently increases when a female has young. Geographic Range. in North America. Desert woodrats sometimes appropriate the burrows of ground squirrels or kangaroo rats,[citation needed] and will fortify the entrance with several cubic metres of sticks and joints collected from jumping and teddy-bear chollas. The fountain, mural, and accompanying graphics illustrate the story of our Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. The desert woodrat is illustrated on the Wave’s mosaic tile mural, Rios de la Vida (Rivers of Life). Their houses are located against rock crevices, at the base of cactus plants, or in the lower branches of trees. Woodrats (Neotoma spp.) Neotoma lepida is also found in southern California, including the coastal region, and along the Baja California peninsula. Reptiles: Desert Tortoise Gopherus agassizii Like other reptiles, the desert tortoise is cold-blooded. Regardless of the color on the rest of the body, however, the animal's underparts and feet are always white, while the otherwise pale fur on the throat region is gray at its base. They will strengthen the entrance with sticks and joints collected from cactus. The bushy-tailed woodrat (Neotoma cinerea), often called a packrat, is among the largest and most common woodrats, weighing up to 600 grams (about 1.3 pounds) and having a body length of up to 25 cm (nearly 10 inches).Its slightly shorter tail is longhaired and bushy, which is unique within the genus. Neotoma lepida is found from southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon south through Nevada and western Utah. Desert woodrats are herbivores and granivores. Desert Woodrat Species. Desert … Each litter may contain approximately five young ones. The lifespan of this rat is approximately two years in the wild. They gain sexual maturity after about 60 days of birth. The young weigh about 10 g (0.35 oz) at birth, and are blind, with only the tips of their hairs visible. J. They are active year-round. In the lab, five individuals from each population were fed a rabbit chow based diet (Harlan Teklad formula 2031) supplemented with either juniper foliage or a resin extracted from creosote bush foliage. Desert Woodrat Distribution, Abundance, and Seasonality. Species: Eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana) Description: Total length 14 to 17 inches (36 to 43 cm). The teeth achieve their normal shape after about twelve days, but the young are not completely weaned until around four weeks of age. These rats may defend succulent plants and other water sources against other species as well … They range from southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, south through Nevada and western Utah to California in the US, and Baja California and extreme northwestern Sonora in Mexico. Little information is available about the mating system in Desert woodrats. [1] They are generally found in sagebrush scrub areas, in chaparral, and in deserts and rocky slopes with scattered cactus, yucca, pine/juniper, and other low vegetation, at elevations up to 2,900 m (9,500 ft). 10.1644/1545-1410(2002)699<0001:NL>2.0.CO;2, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Desert_woodrat&oldid=1002183107, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2014, Articles with dead external links from May 2014, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 January 2021, at 06:19. Their coloring varies between individuals, and can be anything from pale gray to cinnamon to near-black. Most become sexually mature after 60 days. Desert woodrats have a narrow snout, long whiskers, and relatively long ears that are almost the length of the hind feet. Desert woodrats also occur on several islands in the Gulf of California. Pack rats are noticeably larger than deer mice, harvest mice and grasshopper mice, … This animal is also commonly called a Packrat. Purpose of Study : The purpose of this on-going study is to assess the demography and ecology of two species of woodrat, the dusky-footed woodrat ( Neotoma fuscipes ) and the San Diego desert woodrat ( Neotoma lepida ).In particular, this study seeks to understand how these two species partition resources and how their life history traits and reproductive success differs.