Big-eared Woodrat (Neotoma macrotis) lives in dry desert scrub across Southwestern North America. It feeds on fruits and seeds. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Big-eared Woodrat
- The big-eared woodrat gets more than 85% of its food from oak leaves, a diet rich in tannins that most herbivores avoid. It has specialised to eat very fibrous, tannin-laden foliage, which lets it use a food source that is both plentiful and little contested by other mammals. This feeding habit lets the species thrive in oak-dominated habitats where competitors are scarce.
- The big-eared woodrat carries the Bear Canyon virus, a mammarenavirus once thought to belong only to California mice. A study showed the virus is actually passed by the woodrat before it jumps to the mouse host. This transmission route explains how the pathogen moves between species in their shared habitats.
- In 2002 DNA and skull studies lifted the big-eared woodrat from a subspecies to a full species. The morphological and molecular analysis that year recognised it as a distinct taxon separate from the dusky-footed woodrat. Because the reclassification is recent, much of the existing knowledge still combines information from both the big-eared and dusky-footed woodrats.
- The big-eared woodrat is a primarily arboreal herbivore that feeds on oak leaves in the canopy of coast live oak forests. By stripping leaves and creating debris piles, it influences plant growth and provides shelter for insects, making it a keystone component of oak and mixed forest ecosystems.
- The species occupies a narrow strip of coastline beginning just south of Monterey Bay and extending through Baja California, with additional populations in the southern Sierra Nevada and isolated pockets in California's central valley. This distribution follows habitats rich in coast live oak and dense understory, but the range is broken into discontiguous sections.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.
At a glance
RangeSouthwestern North America
HabitatDry desert scrub
DietFruits and seeds
About the Big-eared Woodrat
In the twilight depths of the woodland, a diminutive yet industrious figure emerges, the Big-eared Woodrat, its oversized ears twitching with every snap of a twig or rustle of leaves. With an air of quiet purpose, it navigates the forest floor, its agile body weaving through the underbrush as it gathers an assortment of twigs, seeds, and other treasures to construct its intricate nest. As it moves, the woodrat's large ears rotate independently, drinking in the symphony of nocturnal sounds that fill the forest, a testament to its remarkable adaptability in this shadowy world.
Hear the Big-eared Woodrat, and 4,400+ more
Real recorded sounds, 11 nature games and a free Daily 5, 1v1 quiz duels, conservation wins and a safe Kids mode. Free on Feravox.
