Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012 - 55

suggestions  have  been  made.  After  all,  their rock habitats are not very accessible  to most people. Researcher Kathleen LoGludice summed up biologists hypotheses  in  The  Allegheny  Woodrat;  Ecology,  Conservation  and  Management  of  a  Declining  Species  edited  by  J.D.  Peles  and  Janet  Wright. First and foremost, is a decrease in  food that began with the disappearance of  the predictable, yearly crop of American  chestnuts,  and  then  the  woodrats  tried  to adjust to boom-and-bust acorn cycles,  especially during years of heavy gypsy moth  infestation when oaks are too stressed to  produce any acorns.  Habitat  fragmentation  caused  by  new  or widened roads, quarries, industrial wind  farms,  utility  lines,  communication  towers, and natural gas drilling rigs makes it  increasingly difficult for woodrats to move  safely from one rock habitat to another.  Finally,  as  packrats,  they  collect  both  edible  and  inedible  material.  One  “midden,” as it is called, examined in Centre  County  in  1941,  contained  three  quarts  of deer pellets. Three other middens discovered by the same researcher yielded a 

For more information on this charismatic animal, consult the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s website: www.pgc.state.pa.us and look under wildlife and conservation. The Allegheny Woodrat; Ecology, Conservation and Management of a Declining Species, edited by J.D. Peles and Janet Wright, is also an excellent source.

baseball cover, can labels, a cigarette pack,  cloth,  a  shoe  heel,  yarn,  rusty  tin  cans  and pieces of string. None of these items  pose a threat to Allegheny woodrats. But  as their habitat fragments and residential  and agricultural fields move closer, generalist species, especially raccoons, increase.  With raccoons come raccoon roundworm,  which is fatal to woodrats that collect and  eat raccoon feces.  Raccoons also prey on woodrats, as do  great horned owls, coyotes, weasels, fishers  and  black  rat  snakes.  We  certainly  have  abundant numbers of these creatures on our  property. And, I hope, my sighting is a sign  that  we  have  a  population  of  Allegheny  woodrats, too.  

Fun Game — By Connie Mertz

Find the Small Mammals
Circle the 12 mammals that are spelled backwards and then find the hidden word.

K N I M W L E S A E W W E R H S I E S U O M D L E I F E L O M L K N U K S D E L O V L T I B B A R N O O C C A R I F M U S S O P O T A R K S U M E T A B
Hidden word:  ____  ____  ____  ____  ____  ____  ____  ____  answers on page 63
JUNE  2012  55
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=709073&mode=2 http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=709073&mode=2
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2012

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