General Information

Food and Predation

Habitat and Foraging

Social Spacing

Mating and Young

Social Organization and Dominance

Summary

Works Cited

Home

Summary

 

The kangaroo rat is a nocturnal heteroymid rodent who are granivorous and feed on seeds of mesquite, creosote, bush, purslane, ocotillo, and grama grass. The selective forces in the kangaroo rat, predation and habitat conditions have shaped their behavior. However, predation seems to have been the strongest adaptiive force (Thompson 1982). The kangaroo rat has various predators such as the coyote, fox, badger, owl, snake (Western Rattlesnake, Gopher, and King) and weasel, which make the time they spend above ground dangerous for them, and is most likely the source of their nocturnal lifestyle. They often live in dry or desert environments usually with scattered shrubs and bushes where they forage for their main food sources, seeds. Kangaroo rats have varying foraging strategies based on their habitat. The Banner-tail kangaroo rat larderhoards its seeds its burrow, while the Merriam kangaroo rat will scatterhoard seeds in many small caches throughout its home range. Both species use their burrow as protection against predators and conditions of their habitat. The burrow is a nesting only territory for the Merriam, and for the Banner-tail the burrow it is a mating and nesting territory. Territorial defense behaviors that kangaroo rats use are olfactory signals, sun bathing, chasing and footdrumming (especially in Banner-tail). The mating strategy for the kangaroo rat is overlap promiscuity. This is most likely due to the fact that they have home ranges which overlap with home ranges of other kangaroo rats. The home ranges are not defendable due to the nature of their scattered and patchy food source. Thus, the kangaroo rats will not remain in one place and will thus mate when a male comes upon a female who is in estrus. Females also take care of the young alone so there is no need for the male to stick around after copulation. There is also no bond formed between the male and female kangaroo rat during reproduction. Males are dominant to females and have been shown to have a linear dominance hierarchy. This classification, however, is questionable because of their solitary social organization it is rarely enforced.

 

 

 

 

Comparison of the Merriam and the Banner-tail kangaroo rat

 

	Habitat	Social Spacing	Reproduction	Burrows	Territories	Foraging	Other
Merriam kangaroo rat	very dry desert environment	Home range (larger)	Feburary to May multiple mounts outside of the burrow	simple no seed storage dug near the base of shrubs	nesting only	larderhoarding	can survive without water
Banner-tail kangaroo rat	desert grasslands	Home range (smaller)	year long one mounting per encounter inside the burrow footdrumming and chasing	elaborate, conspicious seed storge mounds on surface higher investment	mating and nesting only	scatterhoarding	more territorial footdrumming

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Davidson Biology Department Home Page. Animal Behavior Home Page. Davidson College Home Page