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These rodents are also eaten by most Mexicans of the laboring class … and are generally on sale in country markets ‘south of the border.’ By these people, wood rat meat is considered better than rabbit or chicken, and especially suitable for sick persons.” For centuries, many Indian tribes … have depended on wood rats for appetizing, nourishing meat. In Mammal s of North America, Victor Cahalane reports: “The flesh tastes like quail, and is much more delicate than squirrel.
![packrat animal packrat animal](https://www.desertusa.com/animals/photos/rat.jpg)
Wood rats themselves are an important source of food for many carnivores, and some sources claim they are good eating by human standards as well. Like certain squirrels, the wood rat stores provisions in large caches for winter use, and those who take time to look may find up to a bushel of pecans or acorns in a single den. The wood rat’s diet embraces most of the plants in its domain, including a wide variety of fruits, nuts and seeds. And where the wood rats are especially common, the amount of damage may be substantial, requiring the little mammals to be trapped to end their destructive behavior. They will gnaw on fruit trees, furniture, mattress bedding, wires, conduits, paper products and other items. Unfortunately, wood rats do occasionally cause problems for farmers and homeowners. It is regrettable that the name “rat” has been applied to it, for it cannot escape the inevitable correlation of terms. Large lustrous eyes betray the wood rat’s nocturnal nature. The tail is haired also, instead of being bare and scaly. The large ears are not naked like the Norway rat’s, but well covered with short fur. Unlike its sinister cousin,the wood rat is very clean in its habits, with long, brown, silky-soft fur and immaculate white underparts. No two animals could be more different and still look so much alike. The wood rat, it should be made clear, is only distantly related to the filthy, introduced Norway rat that often infests homes, barns and granaries.
![packrat animal packrat animal](https://cdn.superstock.com/4179/Comp/4179-25367.jpg)
If a hunter shakes a vine entering a tree nest, wood rats may scamper from it into the treetop, looking at first glance like squirrels and leaving the hunter puzzled at the enormous pile of sticks. The sticks are laid without any apparent order, yet they are so interwoven, it would take a bear some time to pull one of these castles to pieces, allowing the animals inside sufficient time for a safe retreat. These nests, called middens, resemble beaver lodges and may be piled in branches high in a tree, on the ground, at the mouth of a cave or in a cabin attic. Although this rodent is about the size of a small squirrel, it lives in huge piles (often 4 to 5 feet in circumference) of dry branches it collects with great labor and perseverance. The name wood rat refers to its unusual habitations. And though it, too, likes to trade, we have given it the name “wood rat,” or, scientifically speaking, Neotoma floridana. Most folks don’t realize we have our own pack rat right here in Arkansas. Such is fame, and the western pack rat, or “trader rat,” has quite a reputation. When the violence runs its course, the lost item is accidentally discovered in a pack rat’s nest, and the innocent man is redeemed.
![packrat animal packrat animal](http://www.bentler.us/eastern-washington/animals/scat/elk-scat.jpg)
One old timer blames the theft on his bosom buddy, who flatly declares his innocence. One such story involves two prospectors who start feuding because some valuable item - a ring, perhaps, or a gold nugget - has turned up missing. RIVER VALLEY and OZARK AREA Most people have heard tales about western pack rats.