Mammals · Rodentia · Cricetidae

Bushy-tailed Woodrat

Neotoma cinerea

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The bushy-tailed woodrat, popularly known as the pack rat, builds enormous communal nests of twigs, bones, cones, droppings and any shiny object it comes across, piled up over generations in crevices and caves. Those nests, cemented by the animal's crystallised urine, can survive tens of thousands of years in dry climates and have become an extraordinary source for reconstructing past vegetation and climate.

Weight

200 g – 600 g

Size

18 cm – 25 cm

Lifespan

4 years

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

Temperate forestDesertMountainHerbivore Nocturnal Solitary Temperate forest Desert Mountain Mammal

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Fun facts

Its nests are climate archives: the crystallised urine preserves twigs, seeds and pollen for tens of thousands of years, and palaeoecologists study them to reconstruct what the vegetation of the American West was like during the last glaciation.
It has a reputation as a thief: if it comes across a shiny object while carrying something else, it drops what it has and takes the new one, which is why spoons, coins and watches turn up in its nests.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)
Habitat & environment: Rock outcrops, scree, caves and abandoned cabins in the mountains and forests of western North America
Sexual maturity: 11.6 months
Gestation / incubation: 30 days
Litter / clutch size: 3.68 (average)

Sources consulted: https://www.iucnredlist.org/ | https://animaldiversity.org/ | https://es.wikipedia.org/