White Sands National Park’s gypsum dunes, the rugged limestone of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, and the desert slopes near Carlsbad Caverns National Park anchor the cactus deermouse’s New Mexico record, all rocky, cover-rich desert the species needs to hide from daytime heat and predators.
Almost none of that record comes from photographs; just 7 of 2,156 sightings carry an iNaturalist image, typical for a strictly nocturnal mouse that spends daylight tucked into rock crevices, brush piles, or a borrowed woodrat den. NatureServe ranks the species S5, Secure, in the state, among the least concerning ranks available.
Records rise in three separate windows, March, June, and again in October and November, rather than one clean peak, a pattern that likely tracks desert rainfall pulses and survey timing more than the mouse’s actual movements.
Full species profile
