Southern plains woodrats are little grey masters of building. They can construct houses over a metre high and thorny enough to deter any would be predators.

Statistics
Average body length 188mm, average tail length 163mm. Weight 272-310g for males and 204-243g for females.

Physical description
Southern plains woodrats are large, grey rats with big ears and quite short, almost bald tails.

Distribution
Western 2/3rds of Texas.

Habitat
Scrubland and deserts.

Diet
Mostly vegetation including thick blades of prickly pear, agave blades, mesquite beans and pods.

Behaviour
Southern plains woodrats construct large 'houses' out of sticks, cactus joints and other scrubland materials. These may be over a metre tall and include an underground burrow system.

Reproduction
Southern plains woodrats usually produce one litter of young a year during early spring. Litters contain between 2 and 4 young, with gestation lasting around 33 days. Young are weaned after about 30 days, being nearly fully grown at 3 months and sexually mature at 10 months old.

Conservation status
They are not listed by the 2000 IUCN Red List.