Pack rat

Packrat ( Neotoma cinerea)

The American bush rat ( Neotoma ) are a genus of New world, of which 22 species are known.

Description

The body length is depending on the type 150-230 mm, tail length between 75 and 240 mm and the weight of 199-450 grams. The coat can be both soft and slightly rough. The delicate coloration of the upper surface varies from light gray- beige to dark gray and cinnamon - sand color. The underside is pure white, light gray or sand color. The type Neotoma chrysomelas shows a bright reddish-brown coat color.

Distribution and habitat

American bush rat are located in many parts of North and Central America, their range extends from northwestern Canada to Nicaragua. They inhabit different habitats, including hot, dry deserts, humid jungles and rocky slopes.

Lifestyle and food

Some species of the American bush rat create complicated burrows or shelters, they pad with branches, stems, leaves, bones, stones or other material. The dwellings are often placed on the ground, on rocks or at the base of trees. They are inhabited by several generations and can achieve over the years both in height and diameter dimensions of two meters. The burrows are designed so that predators can penetrate hardly without getting hurt. American bush rats are nocturnal loner. You can climb very well, but usually do not rise high in the trees. Their diet consists of roots, stems, leaves and seeds. Occasionally enrich invertebrate food supply. The American bush rats do not often drink water and in the hot desert regions they cover their fluid intake from the water that is stored in cacti or other plants.

Reproduction

Sexual maturity occurs at the age of two months for the type Neotoma lepida and at the age of two years at the Art Neotoma cinerea. The breeding season extends over the entire year. Depending on the type varies the number of litters of one to seven. The gestation period is 30 to 40 days. The boys open their eyes after 21 days and are weaned at four weeks. After eight weeks, they reach the weight of adults.

American bush rats and humans

Some species gather with fondness shiny objects for their nests. Do they see a more beautiful thing than what they wear just let the old lie and take the new one with. This property they owe in English the name "trade rats" or "pack rats" - a term that is also applied to people with the compulsive hoarding syndrome.

Several species that are endemic to small islands are severely threatened. These include Neotoma Neotoma anthony and bunkeri, both of which are possibly already extinct. The reasons for this lie in the destruction of their habitat, and the reenactment of entrained feral cats.

Importance for research

The Petrified filth of the American bush rat ( rat middens ) plays a central role in paleoecological and paleoclimatic research on the American Southwest.

System

Musser and Carleton (2005 ) divide the genus into three genera with 22 species:

• Subgenus Neotoma Neotoma albigula lives in the southwestern United States (of Colorado ), and northern Mexico. The Datil living on Iceland in the Gulf of California population was formerly N. varia considered as a separate species, but now classified as a subspecies of N. albigula.
• Neotoma angustapalata lives in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi.
• Neotoma is known only from the island of Islas de Todos Santos in Baja California (Mexico) anthonyi. The species is IUCN endangered ( endangered ), but could also already be extinct
• Neotoma bryanti is on the island of Isla de Cerros, also in Lower California, endemic. This species is Endangered.
• Neotoma bunkeri lives only on the island group Islas Coronado, in Lower California. This species is IUCN endangered and possibly extinct.
• Neotoma chrysomelas is native to Honduras and Nicaragua. This type includes points to a bright reddish-brown coat color.
• Neotoma Devia lives in the U.S. state of Arizona and adjacent parts of Mexico ( Sonora ).
• Neotoma floridana lives in the central and eastern United States from Colorado and Texas or Virginia to the southeast to Florida. A separate subspecies, N. f smalli, lives in the Florida Keys, this subspecies is considered endangered.
• Neotoma fuscipes is common in the mountainous regions of the eastern United States ( Oregon to California).
• Neotoma goldmani inhabited the central Mexican highlands.
• Neotoma lepida lives in the western U.S. ( Oregon and Utah ) down to the Mexican peninsula of Baja California.
• Neotoma leucodon is native to the southwestern U.S. states of Colorado, Arizona and Texas, and northern and central Mexico.
• Neotoma macrotis lives in California and to Baja California.
• Neotoma magister (up to Georgia from Indiana and New York) in large parts of the eastern United States.
• Neotoma martinensis is endemic to the island of Isla San Martin in Lower California. The species is critically endangered.
• Neotoma mexicana is distributed by the U.S. states of Utah and Colorado through Mexico to Honduras.
• Neotoma micropus is in the western United States ( Colorado and Kansas to the south ) spread into middle Mexico.
• Neotoma nelsoni is known only from a small area in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The species is considered critically endangered.
• Neotoma palatine lives only in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
• Neotoma stephensi occurs in the U.S. states of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

• The packrat ( Neotoma cinerea ) lives in western North America. It is the largest species and differs among other things, by the bushy tail.

• Neotoma Phenax lives in the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa. It is considered a very primitive kind

The Magdalena Rat ( Xenomys nelsoni ) and Allen's bush rat ( Hodomys alleni ) are sometimes also incorporated into this genus.