Bushy-tailed woodrat reports run through Utah’s rocky forests and canyon country, including the Uinta–Wasatch–Cache and Dixie national forests. Better known as a packrat, it builds debris middens in caves and crevices and carries conspicuous objects home; protected middens can preserve plant fragments and pollen for thousands of years.
July leads the 78-record calendar, when high-country routes are open and nocturnal surveys are easier. That pattern reflects access and documentation, not woodrat numbers. Large ears, a furred tail, and a preference for cliffs or talus separate this native rodent from commensal rats around buildings, while cached vegetation records what grows close to each den.
Utah’s population carries a secure S4 rank, in line with a species whose rock-crevice middens let it hold on across a wide elevation band, from foothill juniper stands up into subalpine talus.
Full species profile
