U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department ask farmers and ranchers to implement new conservation efforts to save the species. Photo by John Stuhler, Department of Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University.

April 5, 2022

Typically, you don't encounter people concerned about too few rats.

But federal and state environmental agencies are hoping to enlist Texas landowners to help bring back a regional rodent. 

For several decades, the Texas kangaroo rat population has dwindled because of urban sprawl and agricultural expansion — losing between 50 to 60 percent of its total population over the last century.

Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — prompted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — is hoping residents can help revive the species’ population. 

PRAIRIE PLAYER

Named for its hopping movement, similar to that of a kangaroo, the Texas kangaroo rat is a nocturnal, four-toed rodent with long back feet and a long tail. Resembling a large gerbil, the rodent can grow up to a foot long and hop up to a yard’s length in a single bound. 

The species primarily takes habitat in mixed grass systems, but due to habitat loss, also occupies bar ditches alongside rural roads.

Although not a widely known animal, Russell Martin, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Panhandle Wildlife Diversity biologist, said the Texas kangaroo rat is vital to the ecosystem for many reasons, including their role on the food web, feeding nocturnal predators such as bobcats, foxes, coyotes, snakes and owls.

Although not a widely known animal, Russell Martin, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Panhandle Wildlife Diversity biologist, said the Texas kangaroo rat is vital to the ecosystem for many reasons, including their role on the food web, feeding nocturnal predators such as bobcats, foxes, coyotes, snakes and owls.

“But they also provide small-scale ecosystem engineering, because they’re a burrowing mammal,” Martin said. “So, they create burrows with soil and provide some additional aeration and oxygen to soils.”

Texas Kangaroo Rats, Hop For the Future

A video from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department gives an overview of the Texas kangaroo rat. Courtesy of TPWD.

CONSERVATION EFFORTS

Conservation efforts for the hopping rodent have been ramping up in recent years.

In 2018, the Fort Worth Zoo, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, launched an initiative to establish an assurance colony and breed the species under professional care. In November, the Fort Worth facility bred three rat pups, which the zoo believes were the first-ever born under human care.

In 2021, Clint Boal, a professor in Texas Tech's Department of Natural Resources Management, received a $277,982 grant from the USFWS and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to study the connectivity and management of, and develop monitoring strategies for, the Texas Kangaroo Rat.

In January, USFWS and the TPWD proposed a “candidate conservation agreement with assurances” and an “enhancement of survival” plan that would encourage private landowners to protect the Texas kangaroo rat. 

Before implementing the proposed conservation programs, the departments gathered public comment from farmers and ranchers over a 30-day duration between Feb. 22 and March 22.

If approved, participating residents would begin conservation efforts to create more viable habitat and sustain the species’ population. 

“We think (the population decline) is largely due to habitat loss and modification,” said Martin. “A lot of that area has been developed for agriculture and a lot of that short grass prairie habitat has been converted over to cropland. But that habitat loss from the cropland happened basically a century ago, when a lot of that land was broke-out for production. So, while it’s an existing threat, it’s not an ongoing or rising threat. 

“And what we’re doing is trying to incentivize farmers to protect the species,” Martin said.

The conservation measures include prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, range planting and reseeding, maintaining dirt road edges, and conserving prairie dog colonies.

The conservation measures include prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, range planting and reseeding, maintaining dirt road edges, and conserving prairie dog colonies.

In return, the government would provide assurances to the volunteer property owners that no additional conservation measures would be put into place if the species becomes “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act. The hope is that voluntary efforts could prevent the need for increased governmental regulations for the protection of the species.

“This is a collaborative, voluntary agreement that was developed with our state partner and input from private landowners,” Amy Lueders, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southwest regional director, wrote in a news release. “This innovative agreement will allow us to achieve the goal of conserving an imperiled species while providing regulatory certainty to the agricultural and agritourism industry in the Texas kangaroo rat’s historical range.”

RANGE DECLINE

While an exact number of the remaining population isn’t available, Martin said they determine its endangerment by its habitat size. The species has historically lived across 13 counties near the Oklahoma-Texas border, but in recent years, the species’ activity has only spanned five counties in North-Central Texas, ranging from Bowie to Childress.

The species has historically lived across 13 counties near the Oklahoma-Texas border, but in recent years, the species’ activity has only spanned five counties in North-Central Texas, ranging from Bowie to Childress.

“They've been identified as a relatively rare species for several decades,” Martin said. 

He added that the state wildlife agency listed the Texas kangaroo rat as a “state-endangered species” in 1977.

In 2010, WildEarth Guardians, an environmental activist group based in Denver, filed a petition to list the Texas kangaroo rat — as well as four other Great Plains Species — as a federally endangered species. At the time of the petition, the USFWS considered the Texas kangaroo rat as a “species of concern,” the L.A. Times reported in 2010. This means that it warrants protection, but there are species of higher priority.

Currently, the USFWS website states the species’ status as “under review.” Regardless, it could take several years to add a species to the federal lists of endangered and threatened wildlife.

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