CREDIT: GLENN R. STEWART 



MORRO BAY KANGAROO RAT 



Dipodomys heermanni morroensis (Merriam) 



KINGDOM Animalia 



CLASS Mammalia 



ORDER Rodentia 



FAMILY Heteromyidae 



OTHER COMMON NAMES Heermann's 



kangaroo rat 



DATE 



Entered into SWIS to be determined 



Updates 16 October 1978 



LEGAL STATUS 



Federal Endangered (35 FR 16047, 13 Oct 



1970). 

 States Endangered: California 



REASONS FOR CURRENT STATUS 



Historically, this isolated subspecies has occu- 

 pied a range of less than 10 km^ (Grinnell 1922). 

 Recent appraisals have documented a continually 

 shrinking range and, concomitantly, decreased 

 population size. Three factors have contributed to 

 this decline (Congdon and Roest 1975): 



1. Direct loss of habitat due to growth of resi- 

 dential areas. 



2. Successional changes of sparsely vegetated 

 areas into more thickly vegetated chaparral 

 communities. 



3. Increased predation by domestic cats hunting 

 in fields adjacent to human dwellings. 



PRIORITY INDEX 



Not assigned 



