Texas mammals

Silky Pocket Mouse in Texas

Perognathus flavus

Native to Texas S5 Secure in Texas

Not listed as nonindigenous in Texas by USGS NAS; native to its Texas 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.

Silky Pocket Mouse in Texas, by the numbers

Occasional in Texas 126th most recorded of 197 mammals logged in Texas

839 occurrence records
9 with iNaturalist photos
Jul 10, 2024 Last seen in Texas

Records from 2000–2026.

839 total records count every Texas occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the map plots a georeferenced sample of 300; the monthly chart covers the 823 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Silky Pocket Mouse in Texas

Most sightings fall in July to August.

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

Monthly Texas records (table)
MonthRecords
January10
February4
March71
April87
May69
June88
July192
August168
September62
October55
November11
December6

Monthly silky pocket mouse occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Texas, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in Texas, with recorded sightings peaking in July–August.

Occurrence map

Where Silky Pocket Mouse has been recorded in Texas

300 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

300 Texas records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area 2
Rio Bosque Wetlands Park 1
Franklin Mountains State Park 1

Protected places with the most silky pocket 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 Texas

CountyRecords
Brewster County 99
Andrews County 78
Garza County 75
El Paso County 68
Ector County 41
Presidio County 40
Winkler County 39
Culberson County 38
Kinney County 29
Tom Green County 27
Hudspeth County 18
Lamb County 18
61 other counties 269

The complete county distribution, spread across 73 Texas counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Silky pocket mouse turns up across the open grassland and shrubland of the Trans-Pecos, with Big Bend, the Guadalupe Mountains, and the Davis Mountains anchoring the record set. It’s a small, seed-eating rodent that’s active at night and rarely seen by casual visitors, and the data shows it: of 839 Texas records, only 9 come from iNaturalist photos, and the rest are GBIF specimen and survey records built up through decades of trapping work.

Records pile up hard in summer, with July and August together holding 360 of the 839 records, almost certainly reflecting when small-mammal surveys ran rather than a true seasonal spike in the animal itself.

NatureServe lists it S5, Secure, in Texas, matching its Secure (G5) status across its full range.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

More mammals in Texas 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"