Description: Kangaroo rats are recognized by their kangaroo-like
appearance: small front feet, large hind feet and muscular legs on which they hop, and long tufted tails that help balance when rapidly hopping. The desert kangaroo rat is the largest member (head and body: 16 cm [6.5 in.]; tail: 18 - 22 cm [7 - 8.5 in.]) found in Nevada. Overall color is a pale buffy yellow, with a prominent tuft of long white hairs on the tip of the tail and four toes on the hind feet. Except for the possible presence
of a dark ring on the tail anterior to the tuft of white hairs, this species is
entirely pale. Other species of kangaroo rats in southern Nevada are smaller, darker, and lack the prominent white-tufted tail tip. Desert kangaroo rats are nocturnal and solitary. When excited, they kick sand and drum the ground with their hindfeet, or leap straight into the air. Produces 1 - 2 litters of 1 - 6 offspring per year that are born from January to July.
Diet: Seeds, root crowns of perennial grasses, and some green vegetation.
Habitat: Areas with fairly deep (at least 50 cm [20 in.]) wind-blown sand,
in hopsage, blackbrush, Mojave mixed scrub, creosote-bursage, and salt
desert scrub habitats.
Range: Southwestern desert endemic; western and southern Nevada,
southeastern California, western Arizona, and western Mexico. In Nevada, this species is found in lower-elevation desert areas as far north as Humboldt County. Common throughout Clark County in the
appropriate habitats.