Ord’s kangaroo rat turns up in South Dakota almost exclusively west of the Missouri River, and one county towers over the rest: Bennett, on the state’s southern line, holds two-thirds of the mapped reports. Perkins and Jackson counties, also western, supply most of the remainder. Kangaroo rats need loose sandy soil they can dig and dust-bathe in, and the mixed-grass country south of the Badlands offers it in a way the state’s glaciated east never can.
Reports run from April through September and crest in June and July. A kangaroo rat is strictly nocturnal and spends the day sealed in its burrow, so every record represents a trap line or a lucky set of headlights. Summer warmth brings out both the rats and the people counting them, and the seasonal shape owes something to each.
NatureServe ranks the species S5, secure in South Dakota, and the breadth of the western record backs that up. Wherever the soil is sandy enough between the Pine Ridge country and the Grand River, this little kangaroo-like jumper seems to be holding its ground.
Full species profile
