The white-throated woodrat is a desert animal with an outsized New Mexico footprint, 3761 records anchored in Socorro County and running through Hidalgo, Doña Ana, and Grant counties in the south. Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge and the Aden Lava Flow Wilderness Area hold some of the thickest clusters, and the record reaches the cliffs of Bandelier National Monument and the cave country of Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
The packrat and its stick house
Better known as the packrat, this woodrat builds a house rather than digging one, heaping sticks, cactus joints, bones, and scavenged oddments into a midden around a rock crevice or shrub base. Cactus spines worked into the pile armor it against predators, and urine soaking the midden crystallizes over time, preserving some so well that scientists read thousands of years of plant history from ancient examples. The woodrat itself feeds heavily on cactus and draws most of its water from that food.
Night work, and a strong October
Because the woodrat works after dark, it is often known by its houses long before it is seen. Reports crest in October, when cooling nights keep animals active and their fresh gathering is easy to find, with a second rise in early summer as young woodrats leave to build middens of their own.
Status in New Mexico
NatureServe ranks the white-throated woodrat S5, Secure, in New Mexico, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
