The Peloncillo Mountains, Animas Valley, and Gray Ranch sit in New Mexico’s remote southwestern bootheel, the very edge of this desert squirrel’s Sonoran-influenced range. That location, more than the animal’s habits, likely explains why records here are thin: it’s a diurnal, easy-to-see squirrel in open desert and grassland, but the bootheel itself sees relatively few observers.
With 76 records total, the species sits in the “rare” band among New Mexico mammals, and the modest peaks in March, May, and July don’t add up to a strong seasonal signal.
NatureServe lists the Harris’s antelope squirrel as S3, Vulnerable, in New Mexico, even though its global rank is G5, Secure. That gap is mostly about geography: New Mexico catches only the eastern fringe of a squirrel that’s common through much of Arizona and Sonora.
Full species profile
