Allegheny woodrats are a genuine conservation concern in West Virginia: NatureServe’s S3 vulnerable rank and the IUCN’s global Near Threatened status both reflect a species that’s disappeared from large parts of its historic Appalachian range, largely due to raccoon roundworm exposure and declining mast crops. Most of the state’s 37 records, 35 of them, come from GBIF rather than casual photographs, meaning targeted den-site surveys, not incidental sightings, document nearly everything known about this rock-crevice specialist here.
May alone accounts for 12 of the 37 records, nearly a third of the year’s total, likely tracking survey timing at known talus and cliff-face den sites rather than any real seasonal spike in the woodrat’s own activity, since this species is active year-round rather than migratory or seasonally dormant.
Full species profile
