Remarks: The Key Largo woodrat builds very large and conspicuous "stick nests" on the 

 ground which sometimes approach the size and configuration of small beaver lodges . These 

 nests are apparently used and added to by successive generations of woodrats, and often 

 measi'-e four feet high and six to eight feet in diameter. Only one adult woodrat is found 

 occupying each active nest which suggests territorality . 



The Key Largo deer mouse (Peromysius gossypinus allapaticola ) is a small-bodied 

 companion species of the woodrat and shares its current plight. Its range is also confined 

 to Key Largo and its habitat is the climax subtropical forest. 



References : 



Brown, L. N. 1970. Unique mammals found in the Florida Keys . Florida Naturalist, 



43:146-147. 

 Schwartz, A. 1952. The land mammals of southern Florida and the upper Florida Keys. 



Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor . 

 Sherman, H. B. 1955. Description of a new race of woodrats from Key Largo, Florida. 



Jour. Mammalogy, 36:113-120. 



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