The Ruidoso pocket gopher doesn’t live anywhere outside New Mexico. Named for the town near where it was first recognized as its own species, it’s a genuine state endemic, and its records stay close to that original range: 9 of the 10 come from Otero County and the other from Lincoln County, home to Ruidoso itself.
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, at the western foot of the Sacramento Mountains on the edge of the Tularosa Basin, is the one named location tied to the species. Like other pocket gophers, this one spends nearly all its time underground, so records depend heavily on someone spotting a fresh burrow mound rather than the animal itself, and every one of the state’s records so far is an iNaturalist observation.
Of 10 total records, July carries the largest share with five. But for a species this recently described and this rarely surveyed, that’s more likely a snapshot of when someone went looking than a true peak in gopher activity.
