White-Throated Woodrat - Food Habits

Food Habits

White-throated woodrats are opportunistic and primarily herbivorous . Their diet consists of seeds, fruits, green portions of plants, flowers, small amounts of grass, and occasionally beetles (Coleoptera), ants (Hymenoptera), and reptiles. Some of the most commonly consumed plants across the white-throated woodrat's range include mesquite flowers, leaves, seeds, and bark, cacti flowers, stems, and fruits, and yucca leaves.

Foods eaten by white-throated woodrats depend on availability. In Great Basin scrub desert and juniper woodlands in northern Arizona (Coconino County) white-throated woodrat diet was 29% yucca, 24% juniper, 7% rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.), 6% sumac, 5% Apache-plume (Fallugia spp.), 4% sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), 4% saltbush, and 3% ephedra (Ephedra spp.). In the Lower Sonoran zone of southern Arizona (Santa Rita Experimental Range), cacti and mesquite were the primary foods eaten. For a complete list of foods eaten by white-throated woodrats in the Santa Rita Experimental Range, see Vorhies and Taylor. In the southern Great Basin, Navajo yucca (Y. baileyi) is an important food for the white-throated woodrat.

White-throated woodrats require large amounts of water obtained through various xerophytic plants, especially cacti. In Organ Pipe National Monument, white-throated woodrats relied heavily on teddybear cholla, buckhorn cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa), jumping cholla, and goatnut (Simmondsia spp.) for water. In Coconino County, white-throated woodrats obtained water from evergreen species (Ephedra spp., Yucca spp., and Juniperus spp.), which maintained a high year-round water content.

The white-throated woodrat diet varies seasonally. In Coconino County, white-throated woodrats ate a variety of plants, including deciduous shrubs, during warm, wet months when plant moisture was high. During cool, dry months, their diet was restricted largely to evergreen plants. Regardless of season, white-throated woodrats preferred to eat evergreen species. At Carrizo Creek, honey mesquite leaves, flowers, and fruits were the main foods eaten from the end of March until the end of summer. After honey mesquite lost its leaves, white-throated woodrats subsisted on stored beans, bark, and stems.

Some white-throated woodrats store food in their houses. Of 30 white-throated woodrat dens found in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, 77% contained stored food. The average weight of stored food was 2.2 pounds (1.0 kg)/den, range 0.1 to 9.3 pounds (0.05–4.2 kg)/den). Most stored food consisted of mesquite beans and cacti and forb seeds. In general, white-throated woodrats collect food within a 98- to 164-foot (30–50 m) radius of their dens.