Key Largo Woodrat
This large native rat builds bulky stick nests in limestone crevices beneath the tropical hardwood canopy of northern Key Largo.
Artwork inspired by Earl Cunningham
Key Largo woodrats are native ecosystem engineers, not invasive city rats. Their stick nests create long-used shelter complexes, while their restricted hammock habitat has been reduced and fragmented by development.
Most visitors will never see one. Interpretive signs, artificial nest structures used by conservationists, and intact hardwood hammock offer a better encounter than spotlighting or entering sensitive refuge habitat after dark.
- Global range
- Northern Key Largo
- Structure
- Large stick nests
- Activity
- Nocturnal
Quick guide
- Find the habitat
- Dense tropical hardwood hammock over porous limestone is the essential clue.
- Recognize construction
- Persistent stick piles may be woodrat houses, not random storm debris.
Recognize it through habitat and behavior
- Find the habitat
- Dense tropical hardwood hammock over porous limestone is the essential clue.
- Recognize construction
- Persistent stick piles may be woodrat houses, not random storm debris.
- Respect darkness
- Do not spotlight, bait, or enter closed habitat at night.
- Separate species
- This is a native woodrat, not an introduced black or Norway rat.
Good to know
The animal’s common name can provoke the wrong reaction. It is a federally endangered native mammal whose survival depends on precisely the hammock many people mistake for ordinary brush.