pack′ rat`

1. any North and Central American rat of the genus Neotoma, noted for carrying off shiny articles to its nest.

2. Informal. a person who collects, saves, or hoards useless small items.

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Noun

wood rat - any of various small short-tailed rodents of the northern hemisphere having soft fur grey above and white below with furred tails and large ears; some are hosts for Ixodes pacificus and Ixodes scapularis (Lyme disease ticks)

wood-rat

gnawer, rodent - relatively small placental mammals having a single pair of constantly growing incisor teeth specialized for gnawing

Cricetidae, family Cricetidae - mostly small New World rodents including New World mice and lemmings and voles and hamsters

dusky-footed wood rat - a wood rat with dusky feet

field mouse, vole - any of various small mouselike rodents of the family Cricetidae (especially of genus Microtus) having a stout short-tailed body and inconspicuous ears and inhabiting fields or meadows

bushytail woodrat, Neotoma cinerea, trade rat, pack rat, packrat - any of several bushy-tailed rodents of the genus Neotoma of western North America; hoards food and other objects

eastern woodrat, Neotoma floridana - large greyish-brown wood rat of the southeastern United States

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References in periodicals archive

A new species of Brucella isolated from the desert wood rat, Neotoma lepida Thomas.

Brucella neotomae infection in humans, Costa Rica

"The Lucky Seven Show" is a creative fantasy in which Muscatino Rattuti the Great, otherwise known as Musky the wood rat, collaborates with seven other groups or entities to organize multi-faceted use of the hepbarn, a seven sided magical barn storage structure in which all groups wish to perform.

The Lucky Seven Show

The pythons eat many small mammals, including the endangered Key Largo wood rat.

Relocated pythons find way home: invasive Burmese snakes show ability to return to territories

While the lie ingratiates him with her family, it twists his life out of recognition, and winds up exploding in his face; "The Gift" hilariously recounts Wood's father and his obsessive envy of others; "Satyricon" is a ribald tale and has the memorable description of a girlfriend's oral prowess: "I can say I was reminded of Wendy just the other day while watching Animal Planet and seeing a python ingesting a wood rat"; In "The Syllogism," he blows all his money on cocaine.

You're Married to Her?

cruzi are raccoon (Procyon lotor (Linnaeus)), wood rat (Neotoma micropus Baird), armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus (Linnaeus)), and domestic dog (Canis familiaris (Linnaeus)).

Vector surveillance to determine species composition and occurrence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection at three military installations in San Antonio, Texas

It was thought there was a possible link with Neotoma albigula, the white throated wood rat. In 1987, Leishmania was diagnosed in a domestic cat from Uvalde, Texas.

Leishmania: an invasion (Part 2)

These include the Norway rat, the Roof rat, the Wood rat (also known as pack rat, because of its propensity for collecting and storing items) and the Black rat.

Household trespassers: keeping rats, mice, skunks & other interlopers outside

Rodents like the antelope ground squirrel, black-tailed jackrabbit, and wood rat chew through the bark to suck moisture out of the trees during dry spells.

Desert prophets: climate change threatens to wipe out one of the parks' iconic plants

This is how you do it." pulls a fistful of black fat choy from cellophane, pushes its propitious wad into the lukewarm of green porcelain, one day before we enter the Wood Rat's year.

House of jai

Observations concerning the life history and ecology of the wood rat Neotoma floridana flaridana (Ord).

Predominant use of windthrows by nesting eastern woodrats (Neotoma floridana) in the South Carolina coastal plain

Doctors suspect that the process leading to human infection begins when a sand fly bites a rodent called the burrowing wood rat, which carries the parasite.

"Baghdad boil" a sore point in U.S

Twenty-one species of pseudoscorpions, belonging to 14 genera and eight different families are known to be associated with nests packrats (or wood rat) of the genus Neotoma (Villegas-Guzman 2003; Francke & Villegas-Guzman 2006).

A new species of Pachychernes (Pseudoscorpiones, Chernetidae) from Mexico associated with nests of Neotoma micropus (Rodentia, Muridae)