Allegheny Woodrat

Allegheny Woodrat

1. The main source of food for the Allegheny Woodrat are fruits, seeds, leaves, and nuts. First, the food is sent from the esophagus down to the intestines. There, the enzymes break down the food and spread the nutrients and spread the usable materials to the cells. It eliminates its food using the excretory system.

Allegheny Woodrats reproduce sexually and usually give birth through early spring to early fall. The mother usually holds the babies in their belly for about 30 to 37 days. Usually, there are 2 to 3 babies in the litter. "They are 15-18" in diameter..."

When a predator tries to attack a Woodrat, they usually go and run back into their nests. When they are in trouble, they sometimes

use their front paws to attack while baring their teeth, to make the predator become scared.

An Allegheny Woodrat has a long

hairy tail and whiskers.They use

the whiskers to navigate themselves

in dark places. Their tail doesn't really

do anything but makes it easier to

distinguish them from a mouse.

The Allegheny Woodrat

maintains a constant internal

temperature by shivering when

it is cold. They do not have any

distinct features that help them

maintain the constant temperature.

The Allegheny Woodrat, is a nocturnal creature. Which means it only comes out during the night to forage for food. It also, when senses a predator, runs back to its habitat and hides, waiting for the predator to leave. Usually nocturnal animals have big eyes which helps them gather enough light to trigger their photoreceptor; that responds to the light.

One characteristic that may help the Allegheny Woodray, is a camouflage. This way, if it is found by a predator, it can escape into its surroundings. Becoming its surrounding.

Most of the woodrats inherit a dominant trait of gray fur. They also inherit a large amount of whiskers for smelling and feeling around in the dark. They are given an acute sense of smell, to help find food that is lying around.

This type of woodrat has no known genetic disease, that has been found.

The Allegheny Woodrat, has a genetic abnormality know as Raccoon Roundworm Infection. A roundworm can cause many symptoms in animals, such as making them lose their fear, and will even have troubles walking, and may even go into comas, and the worst case scenario; death.

There are few things that limit the Allegheny Woodrat from thriving, however they are dangerous things. Humans limit their habitats by expanding into areas of their habitat. Other predators of them also limit their expansion, because their predators are growing in size. Also the parasitic roundworm , which is a genetic disease has been limiting their growth in population.

As far as it has been researched,

the Allegheny Woodrat has not

been known to interbreed.

Therefore, they can only breed with

other Allegheny Woodrats.

The Allegheny Woodrat mainly lives in rocky areas, in deciduous forests, also in smaller caves and tiny crevices. They also live in fissures that overlook rivers.

A niche of the organism is it collects garbage and other items that have been left behind by other organisms. They are called "pack-rats", and that is why they got that name.

The Allegheny Woodrat is a consumer.

It doesn't produce its food but gets it through locomotion. They are herbivores and only eat plants, seeds, fruits etc. In the food web it is near the bottom. It is eaten by great horned

owls, black rat snakes and raccoons.

Over about 20 years, the

Allegheny Woodrat, has not

changed. They look the same

throughout two decades.

There are many reasons why

the Allegheny Woodrat is on the

endangered list. One of the reasons

is many of their food sources, like

the chestnut, are disappearing.

Therefore the Allegheny Woodrats

are running out of food to eat.

In many ways, humans are also

contributing to the rapid decrease

of the animals. More people are

building houses, farms, and other

things that make it harder for these

animals to get to their habitats.

As of right now, nobody really

knows why the Allegheny Woodrat

is rapidly becoming extinct. Some

think it is because their food source

is rapidly decreasing. Nobody knows

for sure. They are conducting many

practices and experiments to help

figure out the problem. Some are

trying to breed the Woodrats so

that the population would start to

increase.

There is one problem that the

Allegheny Woodrat causes. The

problem is with some of its predators,

considering if we get the population of

the woodrat to increase by decreasing

the number of predators, it may cause

an unbalance in the ecosystems. By eliminating some of the predators they

can become endangered.

Bibliography:

http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3385.htm

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6975.html

dx.doi.org/10.1656/058.008.0115

http://www.wildsouth.org/index.php/species-spotlight/105-allegheny-woodrat

http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/wildlife/tes/ca-overview/docs/animal_Neotoma_floridana&_Nmagister-Eastern&AlleghenyWoodrat.pdf

http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/fnr/html/faculty/rhodes/genetics.html

http://www.gvsd.org/cms/lib02/PA01001045/Centricity/Domain/240/Threatened_Species.pdf

http://www.zoo.org/Document.Doc?id=75

http://nwco.net/044-wildlifediseases/4-2-RaccoonRoundworm.asp