Cotton mice post the largest raw record count of any species in this Mississippi rank tier, 302 total, yet all but 5 of them come from GBIF rather than iNaturalist, meaning trapping and specimen surveys, not casual photographs, drive nearly everything documented about this common Peromyscus mouse in the state. NatureServe rates the population S5, secure, fitting a species that’s genuinely well-studied through small-mammal trapping programs across Mississippi’s forests, even though its “rare” bucket label here reflects a percentile ranking, not the raw record count.
Records are erratic across the year rather than seasonal, February’s 40 sightings and a scattering of months in the 30s contrast with a sharp May low of just 1, a pattern that likely tracks when individual trapping surveys ran rather than any real seasonal shift in the mouse’s own activity.
Full species profile
