The Allegheny Woodrat: Ecology, Conservation, and Management of a Declining Species

Once a common resident of the northeastern United States, the Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) has now disappeared from areas where it was once abundant. The mystery of its decline has confounded biologists for three decades, but offers warnings for the future of other small, inconspicuous native mammals. Mammalogists John Peles and Janet Wright have synthesized current knowledge of the species in book form. The Allegheny Woodrat: Ecology, Conservation, and Management of a Declining Species provides the reader with a coherent, integrated picture illustrating the current status and distribution of the woodrat as well as the factors that have contributed to its decline. It provides background of the mammal’s ecology and genetics and insight into its future through conservation initiatives and management programs.

Through hard lessons learned and relayed in the book, the editors and contributors hope to provide both good models for, and some caveats to, general principles that may be applied to the study of other declining species. It is a real and instructive study for ecology, management and conservation.