The Bolaños Woodrat lives in a deep, arid canyon in western Mexico, the Bolaños Canyon, which gives it its common name. Confirmed records of the species are scarce outside this canyon. Like other woodrats, the Bolaños Woodrat builds mounds of piled branches and prickly plant material. These serve as shelter from predators. It takes advantage of the thorny scrub and columnar cactus vegetation characteristic of this arid, rugged landscape. Its distribution is linked to a very specific canyon with steep topography. This is a good example of how the rugged geography of western Mexico has generated isolated mammal populations with a much more restricted distribution than their relatives in more open terrain. It is one of several woodrat species endemic to Mexico whose detailed biology remains relatively little known.
Medium-sized rodent with a robust body, greyish-brown to reddish fur, large eyes, and a moderately long, bushy tail. It differs from other field rats in western Mexico by its distribution, restricted to the Bolaños Canyon and neighbouring areas, and by cranial details.
Track with 4 fore toes and 5 hind toes, hind track 2-2.5 cm long. Droppings rounded and elongated, 8-10 mm long, left in small piles near the entrance of the burrow.
The most unmistakable sign is its home: a mound of piled branches, spiny cactus, and other prickly plant material. It features several entrances hidden among the spines and a central nest of soft material. Such homes are typical of the rocky walls and canyon slopes where the Bolaños Woodrat lives.
Arid scrubland and columnar cactus forest on steep terrain, in the Bolaños Canyon and neighbouring areas. Found in a restricted area of western Mexico, in the state of Jalisco.
Herbivorous, it feeds on leaves, tender stems, cactus fruit and seeds from the arid scrubland where it lives.
Solitary and territorial, the Bolaños Woodrat builds and maintains a refuge mound of branches and thorny material. It is nocturnal, spending the day sheltered in the central nest of its mound.
The Bolaños Woodrat's distribution is restricted to the Bolaños canyon and neighbouring areas. This, coupled with the transformation of arid scrubland in some places, has led to a continuous decline in its populations.
Arid scrubland and columnar cactus forest in western Jalisco are being transformed by agricultural and livestock expansion. This has geographically restricted the Bolaños Woodrat to a relatively small area.
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