MAMMALS
MAMMALS Woodrats in Western North Carolina
by Andrea Shipley, Mammalogist
I n western North Carolina, we have two species of woodrat: the Allegheny woodrat and the Southern Appalachian woodrat. The Allegheny woodrat is found in high-elevation rocky habi- tats. The Southern Appalachian woodrat is also found in rocky communities sometimes but can also live in forests and at lower elevations where they build middens and larger communal nests where they reside. The Allegheny woodrat is in decline in other states within its range, while not much is known about the Southern Appalachian woodrat; therefore, both are species of greatest conservation need in NC. In the late 1990s, Danny Ray, former NCWRC District Biologist, focused his Master’s research on the woodrat and performed woodrat surveys in western NC. He compiled inter- esting information about woodrats in his thesis, but in the interim 20 years, no other research had been performed. Recently, Danny Ray, Colleen Olfenbuttel (Game Mammals and Surveys Supervisor), and I received reports about sites where woodrats had been found previously but where no woodrats had been detected in years. This decline in detec- tions was concerning to us, so we initiated a follow-up pilot project to survey the sites from the late 1990s. We set up cam- era traps at sites that historically had supported woodrats to collect information on woodrat activities as well as mesocarni- vore presence. We wanted to know what time of year to best monitor these sites in the future using camera traps. We ended up collecting over 1.5 million photos from this effort and we needed assistance in going through all the photos and identifying our target species. Clemson University was con- tracted to perform this work and answer our many questions about monitoring woodrat and mesocarnivore presence. Clemson faculty and students tested a private AI platform to identify our species of interest and to determine if this method is efficient for processing photos and these results will be available soon. From this project we found that woodrats were observed on camera for all 15 sites where we camera trapped, and the best
time of year to monitor them is in May and June when they were found to be most active. Conversely, the worst time of the year to monitor them is in January and February when they’re least active. Mesopredators detected in photos included American mink, bobcat, coyote, domestic cat, domestic dog, eastern spot- ted skunk, gray fox, long-tailed weasel, northern raccoon, red fox, striped skunk, and Virginia opossum. Presence of raccoons is particularly of interest because they carry raccoon round- worm. Raccoon roundworm may be a source of mortality for woodrats and is thought to be the main reason for site extirpa- tion of woodrats in other parts of its range. Raccoons were found at 13 of the 15 sites we camera trapped. In the future, we will need to survey for raccoon latrines, potentially using a detection dog to find their scat, to test if raccoon roundworm is present at these sites. The information gained from this project will help guide development of a long-term monitoring plan and best management practices for woodrats.
56 2025 WILDLIFE DIVERSITY PROGRAM ANNUAL REPORT
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