The tail is extremely long, on average 140% of its body length and contains a white stripe with a heavy tuft of hair at the end.

[3] A notable characteristic of the Panamint kangaroo rat is the fur lined cheek pouches that it uses to obtain large quantities of food.

[3][4] Panamint kangaroo rats occupy holes in small mounds of sand that have accumulated around clumps of brush.

In the Panamint Mountains, one animal may occupy a burrow that has 12 or more tunnels, the mouths of which are connected on the surface by well-defined runways.

Some examples of seeds and other food sources which they obtain are pinion pine, juniper berries, green shoots of grass, insects, and mesquite.

Based on the physiological aspect of their sense of smell, Panamint kangaroo rats seem to have a better time locating these hoards during dry weather.

Panamint kangaroo rats are excellent swimmers, their large hind feet give them considerable agility in the water.

Continuous proximity of the male may cause the female to stop cycling so, successful breeding demands that both sexes dwell separately, coming together for mating with only a brief paring interval.

[3] Because of the dry desert environment that the Panamint kangaroo rat inhabits, it has developed a specialized way to metabolize water from their food that they obtain.