Hispid cotton rat reaches Arizona at the western edge of a range that spans most of the southern and eastern United States, favoring dense grass along the state’s southeastern river valleys and irrigation ditches. Its bottom-quarter record fits a species living at the margin of suitable habitat here.
The record jumps to 7 in October after scattered single counts earlier in the year, a pattern that likely reflects a single trapping survey more than a real autumn population spike for this thinly documented edge-of-range population.
Full species profile
