New Mexico holds most of the desert pocket gopher’s entire range. The species is confirmed in only two states, and of 88 range-wide records, 71 sit in New Mexico against 17 in Texas, concentrated along the Rio Grande corridor and around Bosque del Apache and Bitter Lake national wildlife refuges. Like other pocket gophers, it rarely surfaces, so these are mostly burrow and trapping records rather than sightings.
Reports spike three times a year, in March, August, and October, with quieter stretches between. NatureServe ranks the species S3, Vulnerable, in New Mexico, and the IUCN lists it Near Threatened globally, a rarer combination than most small mammals in this survey carry. A narrow two-state range and a life spent mostly underground make its true numbers harder to gauge than the record count alone can show.
Full species profile
