Oklahoma’s cotton mouse records concentrate in the far southeastern corner of the state, the forested ridges and stream bottoms of the Ouachita Mountains and Kiamichi country. Places like Ouachita National Forest, Beavers Bend State Park, and Robbers Cave State Park sit inside that humid, wooded pocket, about as far as this southeastern forest specialist reaches into Oklahoma.
It’s a mouse built for climbing as much as burrowing. Large hind feet help it scramble into trees and buildings, and it shelters in hollow logs and old burrows scattered through the forest floor. Seeds, nuts, berries, and insects round out a diet flexible enough to carry it through a changing forest year.
Records here turn up in every month but July, with a lift in January, February, and October, though the state’s total of 102 stays modest for a nocturnal woodland mouse that’s easy to miss. Oklahoma sits at the edge of its range, so the thin record count likely says as much about limited survey coverage here as about the animal itself.
Full species profile
