Nearly all of this woodrat’s 373 New Mexico records come from GBIF specimen data. Only 4 trace to iNaturalist, which fits a nocturnal rock-crevice dweller that’s rarely seen alive, let alone photographed. Among the state’s mammals it sits in the “rare” band by record count, though that’s likely as much about detectability as true scarcity.
Carson National Forest, Rio Chama, and El Vado Lake State Park, all in New Mexico’s far north, mark where the record concentrates. That fits the species’ hold on rocky uplands and canyon country, where it wedges bulky stick-and-bone nests into cliff crevices, the original “packrat” hoarding behavior.
Reports rise in June and again in November, but with a record this thin the pattern likely tracks fieldwork timing more than the woodrat’s own activity. NatureServe lists it as S4, Apparently Secure, statewide.
Full species profile
