Stephens’ woodrat is a juniper specialist, feeding heavily on juniper foliage and berries and often stripping bark to line its stick nest, which ties it closely to the pinyon-juniper woodland covering much of the Colorado Plateau around Grand Canyon National Park, Coconino National Forest, and Kaibab National Forest.
Records concentrate sharply in July, with a smaller rise in October and nothing the rest of the year, a pattern that likely tracks when field surveys ran more than any true summer-only activity, since this nocturnal rodent stays active year-round inside its den. NatureServe hasn’t yet assigned Arizona a numeric rank for the species.
Full species profile
