Coues’ rice rat is a marsh and thornscrub specialist restricted in Texas to the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the South Texas coast, so the reference points attached to this record set, Big Bend National Park, Balcones Canyonlands, and Big Thicket, are generic statewide placeholders rather than real habitat; none of the three sits anywhere near the wet, dense cover this rodent actually needs.
All 228 Texas records come from GBIF specimen and survey data rather than iNaturalist photos, which fits a small, secretive rodent that’s rarely seen by casual observers and mostly turns up in trapping studies. The monthly counts are erratic, a hard 76 in March and 74 in November against flat zeros in April, May, and August, a pattern that looks far more like when trapping surveys happened to run than any real seasonal cycle.
NatureServe ranks Coues’ rice rat S2, Imperiled, in Texas, a genuine conservation flag tied to its narrow South Texas range, distinct from its secure global standing.
Full species profile
