Records of the silky pocket mouse in New Mexico run overwhelmingly through GBIF specimen data: just 32 iNaturalist observations sit inside a state total of 645. That split fits one of North America’s smallest rodents, easy to miss even standing right next to its burrow, so its documented presence depends far more on trap lines and field surveys than on anyone spotting it in the open. Socorro County alone holds half the records, and the most often named sites, Cebolla Wilderness Area with 11 and El Malpais National Monument with 6, are a reminder of how loosely this mouse’s records tie to any particular park boundary.
Reports build through spring, peak in May, rise again in September, and fall away by winter, a pattern shaped by when field surveys ran rather than by a seasonal rise in the population. NatureServe still ranks the species S5, secure across New Mexico, matching a wide-ranging seed-eater of sandy grassland and desert scrub that needs little beyond loose soil and scattered cover to persist.
Full species profile
