Life History of the Kangaroo Rat

Life History of the Kangaroo Rat, by

Charles T. Vorhies and Walter P. Taylor This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Life History of the Kangaroo Rat
Author: Charles T. Vorhies and Walter P. Taylor
Release Date: March 11, 2006 [EBook #17966]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO RAT ***

Produced by David Starner, Sigal Alon and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BULLETIN No. 1091
Also Technical Bulletin No. 1 of the Agricultural Experiment Station University of Arizona
Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER September 13, 1922
LIFE HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO RAT Dipodomys spectabilis spectabilis Merriam
BY
CHARLES T. VORHIES, Entomologist Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arizona; and
WALTER P. TAYLOR, Assistant Biologist Bureau of Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture

CONTENTS
Importance of Rodent Groups 1 Identification 3 Description 5 Occurrence 7 Habits 9 Food and Storage 18 Burrow Systems, or Dens 28 Commensals and Enemies 33 Abundance 36 Economic Considerations 36 Summary 38 Bibliography 40
[Illustration]
WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1922
[Illustration: PLATE I.--Banner-tailed Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys spectabilis spectabilis Merriam).
From Dipodomys merriami Mearns and subspecies, which occur over much of its range, this form is easily distinguished by its larger size and the conspicuous white brush on the tail.]

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BULLETIN No. 1091
Also Technical Bulletin No. 1 of the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arizona
Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER September, 1922
LIFE HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO RAT,
Dipodomys spectabilis spectabilis Merriam.
By CHARLES T. VORHIES, _Entomologist, Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arizona; and WALTER P. TAYLOR, Assistant Biologist, Bureau of Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture_.

CONTENTS.
Page
Importance of rodent groups 1 Investigational methods 2 Identification 3 Description 5 General characters 5 Color 6 Oil gland 6 Measurements and weights 7 Occurrence 7 General distribution 7 Habitat 7 Habits 9 Evidence of presence 9 Mounds 9 Runways and tracks 10 Signals 11 Voice 12 Daily and seasonal activity 12 Pugnacity and sociability 13 Sense developments 14 Movements and attitudes 15 Storing habits 15 Breeding habits 16 Food and storage 18 Burrow systems, or dens 28 Commensals and enemies 33 Commensals 33 Natural checks 34 Parasites 35 Abundance 36 Economic considerations 36 Control 37 Summary 38 Bibliography 40
NOTE.--This bulletin, a joint contribution of the Bureau of Biological Survey and the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, contains a summary of the results of investigations of the relation of a subspecies of kangaroo rat to the carrying capacity of the open ranges, being one phase of a general study of the life histories of rodent groups as they affect agriculture, forestry, and grazing.

IMPORTANCE OF RODENT GROUPS.
As the serious character of the depredations by harmful rodents is recognized, State, Federal, and private expenditures for their control increase year by year. These depredations include not only the attacks by introduced rats and mice on food materials stored in granaries, warehouses, commercial establishments, docks, and private houses, but also, particularly in the Western States, the ravages of several groups of native ground squirrels and other noxious rodents in grain and certain other field crops. Nor is this all, for it has been found that such rodents as prairie dogs, pocket gophers, marmots, ground squirrels, and rabbits take appreciable and serious toll of the forage on the open grazing range; in fact, that they reduce the carrying capacity of the range to such an extent that expenditures for control measures are amply justified. Current estimates place the loss of goods due to rats and mice in warehouses and stores throughout the United States at no less than $200,000,000 annually, and damage to the carrying capacity of the open range and to cultivated crops generally by native rodents in the Western States at $300,000,000 additional; added together, we have an impressive total from depredations of rodents.
The distribution and life habits of rodents and the general consideration of their relation to agriculture, forestry, and grazing, with special reference to the carrying capacity of stock ranges, is a subject that has received attention for many years from the Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture. As a result of the investigations conducted much has been learned concerning the economic status of most of the more important groups, and the knowledge already gained forms the basis of the extensive rodent-control work already in progress, and in which many States are cooperating with the bureau. If the work is to be prosecuted intelligently and the fullest measure of success achieved, it is essential that the consideration largely of groups as a whole be supplemented by more exhaustive treatment of the life histories of individual species and of their place in the biological complex. The