Carson National Forest, the Sandia Mountains, and Valles Caldera National Preserve anchor this cottontail’s New Mexico record, a cluster of northern and central uplands rather than the state’s low desert basins. That fits a rabbit built for coniferous forest edges and brushy slopes, and it overlaps enough with desert cottontail range that photos without clear ear or tail detail can be hard to confirm.
The monthly pattern is unusual: records spike in June and, less expectedly, in January, with a quiet stretch in February and March. Because the species is active by day and night year-round, that two-peak shape more likely reflects when observers were out looking than any real seasonal shift in the rabbit’s behavior.
NatureServe rates the mountain cottontail S4, Apparently Secure, across its New Mexico range.
Full species profile
