New Mexico mammals

American Ermine in New Mexico

Mustela erminea

Native to New Mexico

Not listed as nonindigenous in New Mexico by USGS NAS; treated as native to its mapped New Mexico range.

IUCN Red List status

  1. LC
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

American Ermine in New Mexico, by the numbers

Occasional in New Mexico 118th most recorded of 176 mammals logged in New Mexico

21 occurrence records
11 with iNaturalist photos

Records from 2000–2026.

When to look for the American Ermine in New Mexico

Most sightings fall in August to September.

21 New Mexico occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence. Based on a small number of dated records; the seasonal pattern may not be representative.

Monthly New Mexico records (table)
MonthRecords
January0
February0
March1
April0
May0
June0
July3
August9
September7
October0
November0
December1

Monthly american ermine occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in New Mexico, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in New Mexico, with recorded sightings peaking in August–September.

Occurrence map

Where American Ermine has been recorded in New Mexico

21 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

21 New Mexico records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
San Pedro Parks Wilderness 1
Sugarite Canyon State Park 1

Protected places with the most american ermine sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in New Mexico

CountyRecords
Rio Arriba County 6
Taos County 6
Sandoval County 2
Santa Fe County 2
San Miguel County 2
Colfax County 2
Mora County 1

The complete county distribution, spread across 7 New Mexico counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

New Mexico sits near the southern edge of the American ermine’s range, and the numbers reflect it: just 21 total records, combined from GBIF and iNaturalist, clustered loosely around Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, the Rio Grande corridor, and Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

This weasel is a bold hunter for its size, sometimes taking rodents or rabbits considerably larger than itself. No NatureServe rank is on file for New Mexico, so there’s no formal read on how secure the state’s population is, only a count of records that lands in the occasional bucket among mammals tracked here.

Reports bunch up from July through September, when it’s warm and outdoor activity in these refuges is highest. That’s a pattern in when people were out looking, not proof the ermine is scarcer the rest of the year.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

American Ermine in other states

More mammals in New Mexico in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"