Abstract

A life history field study of the widespread desert wood rat, Neotoma lepida lepida Thomas, was conducted periodically from August, 1959, to June, 1960, eight miles west of Jericho, Juab County, Utah. An estimation of the density of houses and population density of wood rats throughout the general region, accomplished by charted guadrats and a plotless quarter method, revealed an average densityof 4.9 houses of 3.1 adult wood rats per acre in a juniper-sagebrush community of the type frequently found throughout the area. Live-trapping within a well-wooded juniper-sagebrush community (twenty-four acre area) revealed twenty-seven wood rats captured sixty-eight times for a density of only 1.1 rats per acre. Each occupied house was usually inhabited by only one adult wood rat.

Degree

College and Department

Life Sciences; Plant and Wildlife Sciences

Rights

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