ZION Mammals of Zion-Bryce and Cedar Breaks

MAMMALS OF ZION-BRYCE AND CEDAR BREAKS

List of Mammals
(continued)

POCKET GOPHERS are common wherever there is soil, and do an immense amount of work in stirring and "plowing" the mountain meadows by their burrowing activities. In wild meadows this apparently favors better growth of plants, but outside the parks on cultivated lands the gophers are destructive if not controlled. Their burrows and workings are too well known to need description, although sometimes mistaken for those of moles. Moles do not occur here. Pocket gophers themselves are seldom seen, remaining below ground nearly all the time. They are active throughout the year; the runways which they make under the snow in winter show as "cores" in the spring, where dirt from underground has been packed into the surface runways dug through the snow. These are especially noticeable at Cedar Breaks. Three kinds of gophers are recorded from our areas, but the differences between them are of little interest to the layman. These kinds are:

Thomomys bottae planirostris. It is found in Zion Park and the southern part of Zion Monument at least up to 7000 feet. The type locality is Zion Canyon.

Thomomys bottae centralis. This form occurs below 7000 feet in the northwestern portion of Zion National Monument.

Thomomys fossor. This widespread species occurs at Cedar Breaks, Bryce, and on the high plateaus of Zion National Monument.

PLUME TAILED POCKET MOUSE, Perognathus formosus formosus. This small nocturnal creature is rare in the parks, being known only from the Lower Sonoran Zone areas in Zion National Park, — Coalpits Wash, and the lower portions of Zion and Parunuweap Canyons. Its small burrows and dainty tracks are inconspicuous, and it is seldom or never seen by any save those who make special search for it.

MERRIAM KANGAROO RAT, Dipodomys merriami merriami. — These desert jumping rats are nocturnal and seldom are seen, but their burrows are noticeable in sandy areas of the Lower Sonoran Zone, and occasionally higher as at Birch Creak, Zion. They are beautiful, clean, graceful creatures, entirely unlike the house rat; and there is even beauty in the delicately traced trails which they make each night in the sand as they hop about on their strong hind legs in search of plant food.

ORD KANGAROO RAT, Dipodomys ordii cupidineus. — This five-toed species is common near the east entrance of Zion, and has been recorded also from Upper Sonoran areas in Bryce.

BEAVER, Castor canadensis repentinus. — Pioneer settlers found beaver in both Zion and Parunuweap Canyons, but none have been seen there since about 1900; except that in 1927 or 1928 a beaver (or beavers) started cutting cottonwoods in Parunuweap Canyon near the mouth of Stevens Wash. A very heavy flood came that summer, and no more evidence was seen of the animal. No specimens are available, but it is thought that the form that lived here was repentinus.

SHORT-TAILED GRASSHOPPER MOUSE, Onychomys leucogaster melanophyrs. — This is another mammal unknown to most people. It is a heavily built, short-tailed mouse that forages widely in sagebrush country in search of insects and even other mice; for strange to say, it is a predatory beast, feeding chiefly on meat it has killed. It is known from the eastern sides of both Bryce and Zion.

LONG-TAILED GRASSHOPPER MOUSE, Onychomys torridus longicaudus. This species with habits similar to the preceding is known from the south boundary of Zion.

HARVEST MOUSE, Reithrodontomys megalotis megalotis. — A small "field mouse", externally resembling the house mouse, but always with white underparts. It is found in several of the small meadows on the floor of Zion Canyon.

WHITE-FOOTED MICE, usually known simply as "field mice", are abundant in almost all parts of this region, but are seldom noticed except when they attempt to live in houses or ranger stations. They are an important part of the wildlife picture, forming a basic food supply for many other animals, such as gopher snakes, hawks, and owls, weasels, ring-tails, foxes, coyotes and bobcats. The following kinds are found here:

CANYON MOUSE, Peromyscus crinitus auripectus. — A beautiful yellow form recorded from rocky places near Zion south entrance.

DEER MOUSE, Peromyscus maniculatus sonoriensis. — The most common mouse of the region, found in all zones except the Lower Sonoran.

BRUSH MOUSE, Peromyscus boylii rowleyi. — A long-tailed kind found on brushy talus slopes in the Upper Sonoran Zone chiefly.

PINYON MOUSE, Peromyscus truei truei. — A large-eared mouse thus far recorded only from moist places along the cliffs in Parunuweap Canyon, Zion, and Swamp Canyon, Bryce.

DESERT WOOD RAT, Neotoma lepida monstrabilis. — In the Lower Sonoran Zone, and extending into the Upper Sonoran to about 5000 feet altitude, these relatively smooth-tailed wood rats are common. Their nests are most often found among patches of cactus or yucca, looking like heaps of trash, containing many pieces of dried cactus. Sometimes these rats take up residence in houses, which may annoy the human occupants, especially if subject to insomnia. Wood rats are not foul animals, like house rats, but they habitually carry off bright metallic articles, and at night they may drag their loot across attic floors or accidentally drop it down between partitions, making noisy nuisances of themselves.

BUSHY-TAILED WOOD RAT, Neotoma cinerea cinerea. — Warm buff color, with long soft fur, bushy tail, and long cat-like whiskers, this animal has little resemblance to the house rat. It is not often seen, although active both night and day. Like all wood rats, it will eat almost anything; pine nuts and other seeds are favorite foods. The houses, made of sticks, stones, and cacti, are usually well hidden in crevices among rocks or cliffs. Over most of its range this woodrat is considered to be a Canadian and Hudsonian Zone form, but here it is found in the Upper Sonoran and low Transition, just as is the Arizona bushy-tailed wood rat south of the Colorado. In fact, the wood rats of our region are intergrades between cinera and arizonae, in bodily structure and apparently in habits.

MONTANE MEADOW MOUSE, Microtus montanus opus. — This is abundant in the wet Canadian and Hudsonian meadows at Cedar Breaks and Zion National Monuments, extending down into the Transition Zone at Potato Hollow, Zion Park. It is a heavy-set, short-tailed, gray-black mouse, active either day or night at all seasons. It is sometimes seen scurrying along its network of paths made through the meadows.

CANTANKEROUS MEADOW MOUSE, Microtus mordax mordax. — This slightly larger and longer-tailed kind is common in the Canadian and Hudsonian Zones, but usually lives in dry situations near moist meadows and does not often make runways. It is occasionally found near wet places in Transition or Upper Sonoran Zones, as Potato Hollow, Zion, and Swamp Canyon, Bryce.

SAGEBRUSH VOLE, Lagurus curtatus pauperrimus. — This smaller and lesser known relative of the meadow mouse is known only from a dry sage and rabbitbrush area in Daves Hollow, Bryce (Transition Zone). This is the first record for Utah south of the Uinta Mountains, where it was taken by Vernon Bailey in 1890.

HOUSE MOUSE, Mus musculus subsp.? — This non native mouse is found in buildings at Zion, to a limited extent at Bryce, and occasionally at Cedar Breaks. At Zion house mice have also moved out into the meadows to a slight extent.

NORWAY RAT, Rattus norvegicus norvegicus. — Found in buildings at Zion, Bryce, and occasionally at Cedar Breaks. This undesirable alien, like the house mouse, was introduced from the Old World.