The Pennsylvania Game Commission is joining a multi-state effort to help repopulate the Allegheny Woodrat. State wildlife officials announced Monday that they are joining a coalition, which includes the Maryland Zoo and the Wildlife Futures Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, to create a Woodrat breeding program to help rebuild the animal’s “struggling” population”. Wildlife experts say Allegheny Woodrats are a species of woodrat, known as packrats, that live only in the Appalachian Mountains. Officials say the Allegheny Woodrat population has declined about 70% in the past 40 years due to several factors, including the loss of food sources, a “highly fatal” parasite that is spread by raccoons and the “fragmentation” of their habitat. Officials say the ultimate goal is to “produce genetically diverse woodrats that can be reintroduced back to the wild to improve genetic diversity of remaining woodrat populations”.
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