While few profess a deep love for any small mammal with "rat" in its name, the Allegheny woodrat is a special case.

Pennsylvania Game Commission biologists, foresters and land managers recently have been lugging 25-pound bags of chestnuts to rocky hilltops in Fayette County and elsewhere to keep the state-threatened species alive.

Chinchilla-like with long furry tails, woodrats inhabit rocky outcrops in forested areas. The goal is to stabilize and grow populations to prevent them from becoming federally endangered.

The state has lost 70% of the known woodrat population since the mid-20th century. The species has completely disappeared from New York and Connecticut, said Katelyn Otterbein, a mammal recovery specialist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, although there are small remnant populations left in New Jersey, Ohio and Indiana.

It's true, and perhaps a bit unfortunate, that the woodrat shares a name with the non-native Norway rat.

But the comparison ends there.

Woodrats are a little wilder. They are natives and are much less interested in humans or human food. Living exclusively in rocky areas, the woodrats in our region are found in the Allegheny Mountains, sharing a habitat with other specialists like timber rattlesnakes in a unique rocky community.

"These guys behave like the American pika out west," said Otterbein. "They create caches and collect food from late summer through the fall. They build a stockpile of food to get them through winter because they do not hibernate."

As a packrat, the woodrat also likes to collect shiny things like shotgun shells and rings, Otterbein said. Loners most of the time, they socialize only to breed, producing just one pup a year.

Chances are you won't see them — even if you venture into their rocky habitat. Woodrats are active mostly at night.

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