Description ²

The Hispid Cotton Rat's fur is sprinkled or streaked with blackish or dark brownish and grayish hairs. The Rats molt, losing and getting a new coat, three times in three months as they move through juvenile and subadult stages and into adulthood.

Habitat ³

Favors dense, grassy fields and roadside edges; also in brushy or weedy areas or among reeds and cattails along streams or ponds, in irrigated fields, and in desert scrub with little grass. Nests typically are built under logs, rocks, underground.

Conservation status ⁴

Secure

Sources and Credits

1. (c) J. N. Stuart, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/21786539@N03/3655049180
2. Adapted by okaloosascience from a work by (c) Smithsonian Institution, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/16146964
3. Adapted by okaloosascience from a work by (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28932838
4. Adapted by okaloosascience from a work by (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28932827

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• ASM Mammal Diversity Database
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• CalPhotos
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• iNaturalist Mammal Working Group
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• VertNet

Range Map

(c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

iNat Map