Fulvous harvest mice favor thick grass, briars, and brushy wet ground, habitat that coastal Texas offers in the marsh edges and dune swales at Aransas, Padre Island, and Brazoria national wildlife refuges. Nearly all of the state’s 1,415 records come from GBIF specimen data rather than casual photos, since this small, warm-toned mouse with orange-buff flanks is easy to miss without trapping.
Reports peak hard from January through April, then drop by more than 90 percent through summer before climbing again in November and December. That’s a striking swing for a species active all year, and it more likely tracks when small-mammal surveys run than any real summer decline. Texas ranks the species common, at the 76th percentile among the state’s mammals, and NatureServe lists it S5, Secure statewide.
Full species profile
