Southern Plains woodrats build fortress middens of sticks, thorns, and cactus pads, and the record cluster around Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge tracks that need closely: the refuge sits in the thorn-scrub and cactus flats of South Texas where a woodrat can pile a house shoulder-high in prickly pear. Lower Rio Grande Valley records extend the pattern south toward the border.
Records spread across the year but spike three separate times, in March, then July and September, rather than settling into one clean season. That scattered, multi-peak shape looks more like survey timing than a single breeding pulse, since woodrats build and defend their middens year-round. At 1,423 records, the species sits at the 77th percentile of ranked Texas mammals, and NatureServe lists it S5, Secure across the state.
Full species profile
