Food Habits of the Banner-Tailed Kangaroo Rat in Arizona

Abstract

To supplement an earlier life history study (Monson and Kessler, 1940) of the banner-tailed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys s. spectabilis), 65 dens were excavated and their food storages measured and analyzed, from June, 1939,to July, 1940. The study was made in the southern part of the Sulphur Springs Valley, Cochise County, Arizona in an area delimited on the south by the town of Douglas, on the east by the Pedrogosa and Swisshelm mountains, on the north by a line due east from the town of Pearce, and on the west by the towns of Courtland, Gleeson, and Lowell. The elevation is 4,000 to 4,500 feet, and the average annual rainfall about 12 inches. The general vegetation is a mixed browse-grass type, with extensive, almost pure, stands of tobosa grass (Hilaria mutica) and sacaton grass (Sporobolus wrightii). Mesquite (Prosopis chilensis var. glandulosa), mescat acacia (Acacia constricta), long-flowered catclaw (A. greggii), and creosotebush (Larrea divaricata) are the browse plants, and Rothrock grama (Bouteloua rothrockii), fluffgrass (Triodia pulchella), and the three-awns (Aristida spp.) are the grasses. In this type, bannertails are most common in a particular association (usually moderately to heavily grazed) of Rothrock grama, mesquite, soaptree yucca (Yucca elata), with a variety of less common perennial species and some annuals. Annual vegetation is only locally predominant, and light winter precipitation in 1939-1940 further tended to minimize its role in