Distribution and Habitat of the Woodrat, Neotoma fuscipes, in Northeastern California

Abstract

Neotoma fuscipes has been found to occur widely and abundantly over most of the Great Basin sector of northeastern California in juniper woodland, open pine forest, and lava bed habitats. Past records have shown only slight penetration into this region east of the Cascade range. Early collectors found only Neotoma cinerea in localities where N. fuscipes now is abundant. It is suggested that weather extremes or possibly plague epizootics in the past have severely affected the range of N. fuscipes. The dusky-footed woodrat, Neotoma fuscipes, is distributed along the Pacific Coast from the Columbia River to northern Baja California, generally west of the deserts and Great Basin. In northern California it occurs in the coastal belt, and extends across the head of the Sacramento Valley and along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is well known from Shasta and Scott valleys, Siskiyou County. However, the species has been recorded from just two areas east of the Sierra-Cascade divide-near Tennant and at Crescent Butte, Lava Beds National Monument, in easternmost Siskiyou County (Hooper, 1938), and in the Pit River drainage east to Hayden Hill, north- western Lassen County (Goldman, 1910). We have found Neotoma fuscipes to be widespread and abundant east of the Cascade divide over much of the Great Basin sector of northeastern California.