Hispid cotton rats build their world out of grass, weaving narrow runways through dense cover that also keeps them hidden from nearly everyone but the most attentive observer. New Mexico’s 1,453 records make this one of the more thoroughly documented small mammals in the state, concentrated along the Rio Grande corridor, where irrigated fields and river-bottom grass give the species cover its surrounding desert can’t.
Records show up in every month, with a notable spike in November and a dip in August, a pattern that likely tracks field survey timing and grass conditions more than the rat’s own activity, since cotton rats don’t hibernate or go dormant.
NatureServe ranks the species S5, Secure, in New Mexico, the healthiest standing among the mammals covered in this batch and a sign this is genuinely one of the state’s better-documented grassland rodents rather than a rarity.
Full species profile
