Historical Documentation of the Allegheny Woodrat (Neotoma magister) in Massachusetts

Robert M. Timm^1,*, Gwilym S. Jones², Thomas W. French³, and James E. Cardoza³

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. ²Department of Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115. ³Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, Westborough, MA 01581. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 26, Issue 4 (2019): N47–N51

Abstract
Although most summaries of the distribution of Neotoma magister (Allegheny Woodrat) do not include Massachusetts, there are 2 historical reports of the species’ past occurrence there. Herein, we review those reports and provide details on a specimen from the Berkshire Mountains taken in 1958. No additional observations have been documented in Massachusetts over the subsequent 60 years. Recent efforts to confirm presence of woodrats at the Berkshire Mountains site and efforts in the past several decades to locate a population elsewhere in Massachusetts have been unsuccessful. We conclude that the Allegheny Woodrat historically occurred in Massachusetts, although available habitat was limited. Based on the available habitat and the documented patterns of decline in other portions of the Northeast, it is almost surely now extirpated from Massachusetts.

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