Northwestern marsh rice rat reports fit Tennessee’s low, wet western edge better than its uplands. Reelfoot Lake State Park and the Hatchie and Tennessee national wildlife refuges provide marsh, flooded grass, river margins, and ditches where this strong-swimming mouse can move beneath dense cover.
The Tennessee record is strongest in autumn and early winter, with October and November leading the pattern, not January and March. Reports appear in most months but disappear in August, which may say more about when wetland surveys occurred than where the rat was absent. NatureServe leaves the state rank unresolved, so the records shouldn’t be turned into a population estimate.
Full species profile
