New Mexico mammals

Plains Harvest Mouse in New Mexico

Reithrodontomys montanus

Native to New Mexico S4 Apparently Secure in New Mexico

Not listed as nonindigenous in New Mexico by USGS NAS; native to its New Mexico range.

IUCN Red List status

  1. LC
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

Plains Harvest Mouse in New Mexico, by the numbers

Occasional in New Mexico 88th most recorded of 176 mammals logged in New Mexico

119 occurrence records
1 with iNaturalist photos
Oct 20, 2018 Last seen in New Mexico

Records from 2000–2026.

119 total records count every New Mexico occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the map plots a georeferenced sample of 118; the monthly chart covers the 118 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Plains Harvest Mouse in New Mexico

Most sightings fall in March.

118 New Mexico occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly New Mexico records (table)
MonthRecords
January6
February2
March22
April7
May10
June15
July13
August19
September2
October12
November2
December8

Monthly plains harvest mouse occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in New Mexico, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in New Mexico, with recorded sightings peaking in March, with a smaller rise in June and August.

Occurrence map

Where Plains Harvest Mouse has been recorded in New Mexico

118 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

118 New Mexico records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
El Malpais National Monument 2
Carlsbad Caverns National Park 2
Río Grande Del Norte National Monument 1

Protected places with the most plains harvest mouse sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in New Mexico

CountyRecords
Socorro County 44
Cibola County 19
Eddy County 10
Colfax County 6
Bernalillo County 5
Curry County 5
Sandoval County 4
Hidalgo County 4
Lea County 3
Union County 3
Grant County 2
Quay County 2
9 other counties 12

The complete county distribution, spread across 21 New Mexico counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

New Mexico sits at the low end of the plains harvest mouse’s range: only 35 of the species’ 508 range-wide records come from the state, fewer than every other state it’s mapped in except Nebraska. Kiowa National Grassland, Capulin Volcano National Monument, and Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge anchor the state’s scattered grassland and wetland-edge sightings.

The most recent confirmed New Mexico record dates to 2018, several years stale compared to most small-mammal sightings statewide, pointing to a gap in recent survey effort rather than a shrinking population.

March stands out as the clearest peak in the monthly counts, with secondary bumps in June and August, though a total of only 119 records makes any single month’s count easy to shift with a few extra trapping surveys. NatureServe still rates the species S4, Apparently Secure, statewide.

Occurrence data from GBIF.

More mammals in New Mexico in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"