Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) captive propagation to promote recovery of declining populations

Abstract

The Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) is endemic to the eastern United States with local distributions restricted to rocky habitats within deciduous forests. Over the last 40 years, woodrats have declined precipitously due to an array of human-mediated pressures. There is growing interest in the captive propagation of woodrats as a tool to promote in situ conservation, but their solitary social structure, territorial behavior, and low fecundity present challenges for the attainment of levels of ex situ reproduction sufficient to support reintroduction programs. In 2009 we established a captive breeding program with 12 wild-caught individuals (4.8) collected from Indiana and Pennsylvania. Restricting breeding to wild-caught individuals, over 26 months we produced 19 litters comprised of 43 pups (26.17), of which 40 (24.16) survived to weaning. In sum, wild-caught individuals readily habituated to the captive environment and the low fecundity of woodrats was offset by high survival rates for both adults and juveniles. Therefore, when managed appropriately, captive Allegheny woodrat populations should be capable of supporting the release of surplus individuals to augment in situ conservation measures.

Post‐release survival of captive‐reared Allegheny woodrats

“…We maintained a captive population of Allegheny woodrats at the Purdue Wildlife Area Animal Care Facility (PWAACF), West Lafayette, IN from 2009 to 2012. Husbandry practices, enrichment regimes and breeding protocols were described by Smyser & Swihart (). We released captive‐reared woodrats (> 90 days old) into spatially disjunct, extant populations, restricting releases to the time between April and August to ensure food resources were available and sufficient time was provided to secure a den and establish a cache before winter.…”

“…40 m; Peles & Wright, ) were unoccupied. We transported woodrats in their nest boxes (Smyser & Swihart, ) from PWAACF to the release site, inserted nest boxes into the rocky structure of recipient dens and surrounded the boxes with rocks to provide protection. We placed 0.5 kg rodent block (5663, Mazuri, St. Louis, MO, USA) and crinkle paper (Uline, Pleasant Prairie, WI, USA) for nesting material within the den.…”

Allegheny woodrat hard mast preference and response to food supplementation

“…Woodrat populations showed no discernible positive response to supplementation, suggesting that hard mast was not limiting during our study. Mast provided at each activity center represented a substantial contribution for winter sustenance, providing >60% of the energy needed to sustain a woodrat through a 120‐day period in captivity (Smyser and Swihart ). Woodrats have low reproductive potential relative to most rodents (Mengak ); thus, they may have limited capacity to rapidly convert an abundance of mast resources expected with chestnut restoration into increased reproductive output.…”

Biology and Diseases of Other Rodents

“…Researchers have maintained colonies of Eastern wood rats successfully in captivity (Alligood et al, 2011;Alligood et al, 2009;Dewsbury, 1974;Kinsey, 1976;Knoch, 1968;Smyser and Swihart, 2014;Worth, 1950). Smyser and Swihart (2014) and Alligood et al 2011 developed successful strategies for captive breeding of endangered Allegheny wood rats and Key Largo wood rats, respectively, with eventual re-introduction to the wild.…”