Golden mice build distinctive round nests of leaves and grass, tucked into vine tangles and shrub thickets, and they’re built for climbing rather than digging, unlike most Texas mice. By record count the species ranks occasional in Texas, 117th of 197 mammals, in the middle third.
The 30 Texas records cluster around East Texas’s pineywoods, Big Thicket National Preserve, Davy Crockett National Forest, and Sabine National Forest, humid forest with the dense understory this species needs, at the western edge of its southeastern range. The monthly counts show a sharp winter peak, 15 records in January alone against near zero from July through September, and the most recent record dates to December 2021.
NatureServe ranks the species S4, Apparently Secure, in Texas even though the state holds only 30 records, a reminder that a comfortable conservation rank doesn’t always mean a species turns up often in records.
Full species profile
