The Mexican woodrat favors New Mexico’s rocky canyons and coniferous forest slopes, turning up in records from Cibola National Forest north through Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and Carson National Forest’s high country. Rock crevices and boulder piles, more than any single park boundary, decide where this nest-building rodent can settle.
Records jump sharply from June through October, peaking in September, then nearly disappear in December and February. This nocturnal, plant-eating rodent builds conspicuous stick nests but is still easiest to document during the warm months when researchers are out trapping small mammals, so the late-summer surge likely tracks fieldwork more than the woodrat’s own numbers.
With over 1,600 records and a secure (S5) NatureServe rank, the Mexican woodrat is one of the more thoroughly documented small mammals in New Mexico, even though almost all of those records come from specimen and survey sources rather than casual photographs.
Full species profile
