Big-eared Woodrat

About the Big-eared Woodrat

The big-eared woodrat (Neotoma macrotis) 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.

The big-eared woodrat is light to dark brown in color, often with a lighter underside. It has characteristically large mobile ears, large eyes, and a long, fur covered tail. It is a primarily arboreal herbivore and functions as an important keystone species in oak and other forest ecosystems.

Although often misconstrued to be related to common rats, woodrats are not in fact part of the genus Rattus and are quite biologically and behaviorally different from them. See pack rat for similar species to the big-eared woodrat.

Following a morphological and molecular analysis conducted in 2002, the big-eared woodrat (Neotoma macrotis) was upgraded from a subspecies of the dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes) to be recognized as its own... Wikipedia →