Bailey’s pocket mouse is a Southwest desert specialist, found only in New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and the state’s 59 records sit in the far south, near White Sands National Park, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It moves between Chihuahuan and Sonoran desert scrub, so its New Mexico range reflects where those two desert types meet.
Nearly all of the state’s records come from GBIF rather than photographs, so this is a species field biologists have trapped and logged more than the public has photographed. Reports spike sharply in July, with only scattered records the rest of the year. NatureServe ranks the species S3, Vulnerable, in New Mexico, a step above where its globally secure IUCN listing might suggest.
Full species profile
