florida woodrat

When: May 31, 1804

 

Where: Below the mouth of the Osage River, Missouri.

 

Description: Grayish brown above; white or grayish below. Bicolored tail is less than half total length. Throat hairs gray at base. Length: 12–17 in (3–43 cm); tail: 5–8 in (12.7–20.3 cm). Weight: 7.1–16 oz (200–455 g).

 

Habitat: Rocky cliffs, caves, tumbled boulders in southern Illinois and elsewhere when available; Osage orange and other hedges and wooded low areas bellow south.

 

Range:  Southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska; eastern Colorado; southern Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri; south through Oklahoma and eastern Texas; and southeastward through southern states to mid-peninsular Florida.

 

Note: The Florida woodrat was once combined with the Allegheny woodrat as a single species called the eastern woodrat.