Arizona cotton rat records in New Mexico are few and clustered along water: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, the Rio Grande corridor, and Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, all places with the dense grass and marsh cover this rat needs. With only 22 total records, this looks like the edge of the species’ range rather than a stronghold.
NatureServe ranks it S1, Critically Imperiled, in New Mexico, even though the species holds up fine across its broader range in Arizona and Mexico. That gap between the state rank and the global G5 rank is the real story here: New Mexico is a marginal, fragile foothold for a species doing much better elsewhere.
Twenty-one of the 22 records fall in July alone, a striking cluster for such a small sample. It could reflect a real pulse of activity after seasonal rains, or simply one well-surveyed site. With this little data, either reading stays honest.
Full species profile
