UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 1091 K 



Also Technical Bulletin No. 1 of the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arizona 



ashington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



September, 1922 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO RAT, 



Dipodomys spectabilis spectabilis Merriam. 



'" Charles T. Vorhies, Entomologist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Uni- 

 versity of Arizona; and Walter P. Taylor, Assistant Biologist, Bureau of 

 Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



portance of rodent groups 1 



Investigational methods 2 



mtification .3 



scription .5 



General characters 5 



Color 6 



Oil gland (i 



Measurements and weights 7 



surrence 7 



General distribution 7 



Habitat 7 



bits 9 



Evidence of presence 9 



Mounds 9 



Runways and tracks 10 



Signals 11 



Voice 12 



Daily and seasonal activity 12 



Page. 

 Habits^Continued. 



Pugnacity and sociability 3.3 



Sense developments 14 



Movements and attitudes 15 



Storing habits 15 



Breeding habits 16 



Food and storage 18 



Burrow systems, or dens 28 



Commensals and enemies 3.3 



Commensals 33 



Natural checks 34 



Parasites 35 



Abundance 36 



Economic considerations 36 



Control 37 



Summary 38 



Bilillography 40 



IMPORTANCE OF RODENT GROUPS. 



> S THE serious character of the depredations by harmful rodents 

 »- is recognized, State, Federal, and private expenditures for their 

 ntrol increase year by year. These depredations include not only 

 e attacks by introduced rats and mice on food materials stored in 

 [anaries, warehouses, commercial establishments, docks, and private 

 uses, but also, particularly in the Western States, the ravages of 

 veral groups of native ground squirrels and other noxious rodents 

 grain and certain other field crops. Nor is this all, for it has 



JJOTE. — This bulletin, a joint contribution of the Bureau of Biological Survey and the 

 zona Agricultural Experiment Station, contains a summary of the results of investiga- 

 !is of the relation of a subspecies of kangaroo rat to the carrying capacity of the open 

 iges, being one phase of a general study of the life histories of rodent groups as they 

 ct agriculture, forestry, and grazing. 



1 



