An elusive rodent considered a “sensitive species” was discovered on a West Virginia trail in the Allegheny Mountains.
Officials with the Monongahela National Forest, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, posted a video to Facebook last week showing the tiny creature moving around in the dark.
Trail cameras captured a 17-inch long rodent known as the Allegheny woodrat, which is on the Regional Forest Service’s sensitive species list, according to the post.
The footage showing Woodrat was recorded on March 12, 2024.
A social media post said Allegheny woodrats live in “primarily rocky and rocky hardwood forests.”
Although its name and size may suggest a rat, woodrats are more closely related to rats, officials said.
The Allegheny woodrat population is gradually declining in the United States, with an estimated 100,000 left in the wild, according to a report from the U.S. Forest Service.
Speculation is still rife about the rodent’s decline, but scientists have a few ideas.
“At one time, the Allegheny woodrat’s range extended from southwestern Connecticut, west to Indiana, and south to northern Alabama. It is now extinct from Connecticut and New York, and is now extinct from the remaining northern states. “Studies have reported a decline, and its status in the southern states is unknown due to a lack of recent surveys,” the PGC said.
In 2022, an adult and a juvenile Allegheny woodrat were discovered at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia, marking the first sighting of the animal in 20 years, the National Park Service wrote.
Prior to the discovery, authorities believed the rodent was extinct in that area and other areas along the Appalachian Mountains.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Forest Service for comment.
