The population of the Texas kangaroo rat is declining, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to create a 10-year Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The agreement would also involve private landowners with ranching or farming operations to address this concern in North-Central Texas, the USFWS announced in a Feb. 18 press release. The service is also seeking public comments over a 30-day period.
“This is a collaborative, voluntary agreement that was developed with our state partner and input from private landowners,” said Amy Lueders, USFWS Southwest regional director, in the release. “This innovative agreement will allow us to achieve the goal of conserving an imperiled species while providing regulatory certainty to the agricultural and agritourism industry in the Texas kangaroo rat’s historical range. We encourage the public to review the draft agreement and associated documents and submit comments by the deadline.”
A CCAA is a formal, voluntary agreement between non-federal landowners and the USFWS that helps conserve habitats, the release stated.
With the Texas kangaroo rat CCAA, private landowners who have farms and livestock within the range of the species will maintain and enhance existing habitats, according to the release. This includes grazing, prescribed fire, range planting and reseeding, maintaining dirt road edges and conserving prairie dog colonies.
The agreement covers 11 counties including Archer, Baylor, Childress, Clay, Cottle, Foard, Hardeman, Montague, Motley, Wichita and Wilbarger.
The kangaroo rat is a small brown mammal with a white belly that hops like a kangaroo. The population decline of the Texas kangaroo rat is unknown, according to the Texas Comptroller website, however, the USFWS said that habitat is likely a factor.
“The Texas kangaroo rat is one of many species in decline that depends on the vast grassland that once covered the majority of Texas,” the Texas Comptroller website states. “Its fate, conservation work to protect it and USFWS’ response will be telling for future USFWS listing work on other grassland-dependent species from the Red River to the Rio Grande.”
Biologists discovered that the range of the animal has decreased from 13 counties in Texas and Southern Oklahoma to only five Texas counties over the past century, according to the Texas Comptroller website.
Comments can be submitted via email at arles@fws.gov. Comments can also be mailed to, Debra T. Bills, Arlington Ecological Services Field Office, 2005 Northeast Green Oaks Boulevard, Suite 140, Arlington, Texas 76006. Comments can also be made by phone by calling 817-277-1100, ext. 22113, or via fax at 817-277-1129.
