Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 54

individual nests, as woodrats are solitary animals except during the breeding season. They don’t hibernate, so they are busy collecting and drying food, such as fungi and fern fronds, to stuff into crevices for winter consumption. For the most part, they “exhibit high site fidelity and low dispersal rates,” according to researchers. But Dr. Janet Wright and her students of Dickinson College radiotracked an adult male for two years. At one point, he suddenly moved 3.6 miles along a ridgetop to a new site. She also discovered that woodrats will travel “considerable distances beyond the protection of rock slides in search of food and mates.” Another researcher, Dr. Petra Bohall Wood, in West Virginia, found that woodrats, particularly males, do move away from their birth sites between their juvenile and adult years. From these studies and others I looked at, I hypothesized that the woodrat I encountered still had its grayer youngster coat, and was either searching for food or dispersing. The previous fall had been a terrific mast year, when woodrats are especially prolific, so perhaps young woodrats were more inclined to search more widely for new homes. And, that woodrat Bruce and Steve saw years before, was probably also dispersing. There is another extensive talus slope less than a mile away on our neighbor’s property. Unfortunately, it had been heavily logged the previous year, which may have sent any woodrats living there in search of a new home, because recent studies seem to indicate

that the best habitat surrounding rocky areas should include an oak/hickory forest rich in mast. In fact, a large intact forest buffer 1.2 miles from the forest edge is ideal, something we don’t have below our talus slopes but do on our ridgetop. Pennsylvania is thought to have five percent of the world’s population of Allegheny woodrats. Most of the population is now in the Appalachian south, although more study of populations needs to be done in those areas. It has gone extinct in Connecticut, New York, and the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania where it used to be common. Pennsylvania has relegated Allegheny woodrats to threatened status, and they are protected under the Game and Wildlife Code. Game Commission biologists, including Butchkoski, have been engaged in long-term monitoring to find out how dense populations are at each site. Previously, from 1982 to 2006, Pennsylvania biologists conducted 1,255 surveys at 802 habitat sites and found evidence of current or former woodrat occupation at 443 sites. Of those sites, 246 were still active and 197 were not. They hope to maintain breeding populations in the Appalachian Plateau, Ridge and Valley Province and the upper Susquehanna River drainage. But why are Allegheny woodrats disappearing? That question has haunted researchers from the beginning, and over the years several

54	

GAME	 NEWS



Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012

Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012
History of the Whitetail
Contents
The Cell Phone Elk: A State Record
National Archery in the Schools Program
I Will, Dad
Uncle Pep
In 1931
Dad’s Last Buck
Free Shooting Sticks
Top 10
An Unusual Marriage
Field Notes
Conservation News
Off the Wire
Another View
The Naturalist’s Eye
Fun Game
Straight from the Bowstring
Lock, Stock & Barrel
Crossings
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 1
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - History of the Whitetail
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - The Cell Phone Elk: A State Record
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - National Archery in the Schools Program
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - I Will, Dad
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Uncle Pep
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - In 1931
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Dad’s Last Buck
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Free Shooting Sticks
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Top 10
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 29
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - An Unusual Marriage
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 32
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Field Notes
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Conservation News
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 43
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 44
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 45
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 46
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 47
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Off the Wire
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Another View
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 50
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 51
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - The Naturalist’s Eye
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 53
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 54
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Fun Game
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Straight from the Bowstring
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 57
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 58
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 59
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Lock, Stock & Barrel
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Crossings
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 64a
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 64b
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - Cover4
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