Blink and also you would possibly miss it. Officers from West Virginia’s Monongahela Nationwide Forest shared uncommon path cam footage of a “species of concern”—the Allegheny woodrat.
Allegheny woodrats are a small rodents which are in regards to the dimension of a squirrel. Based on the Nationwide Park Service (NPS), they reside in “rock outcrops, boulder fields, deserted mine portals, talus slopes, and caves from southern New York to Tennessee.”
A latest path cam video reveals an Allegheny woodrat scurrying throughout the sector of view. It sniffs at a tree and goes about its woodrat enterprise as its eyes replicate mild again on the digicam.
In an edited Fb submit, the Monongahela Nationwide Forest says the animal is “a Regional Forester’s Delicate Species” and never “federally threatened” as its authentic submit said. Both method, NPS says it’s a species of concern in West Virginia. Elements which have led to the species’ decline embrace “meals shortages, will increase in predator populations, raccoon roundworm, and normal human encroachment.”
Watch the “species of concern” path cam footage right here:
These little woodrats are “fearful, but curious” and don’t appear to have an aggressive bone of their our bodies. NPS says they not often act aggressively when captured, and so they’ll even grasp round researchers after they’re launched.
Right here’s a video from NPS to be taught extra about this species:
