Nevada holds 7,919 mapped deer mouse records, among the densest counts for any small mammal in this rundown, spread from valley floors to mountain slopes across nearly the whole state.
A name still catching up with genetics
Nevada’s deer mouse records are a bit of a moving target. The deer mouse complex was split in 2019 into an eastern lineage that kept the name Peromyscus maniculatus and a newly recognized western lineage, Peromyscus sonoriensis, that also turns up in Nevada under its own name. Older records and specimens collected before the split still carry the broader name, so the counts mapped here likely include animals a current checklist would sort into that newer western species. That overlap is honest, not sloppy: taxonomy moved faster than the labels on decades of trap records could keep up.
A mouse for nearly every part of the state
Beyond that naming wrinkle, deer mice are as close to a Nevada generalist as any small mammal gets, showing up in sagebrush flats, pinyon-juniper woodland, irrigated farmland, and rocky mountain slopes alike. Records climb sharply from May through August and peak in July, tracking the warm months when breeding and foraging both run hardest, then fall away through winter without disappearing completely.
Status in Nevada
NatureServe ranks the deer mouse S5, secure, and it’s native to Nevada. Its wide record spread across nearly every Nevada habitat fits a species that succeeds by being flexible rather than by depending on any one setting.
Full species profile
