New Mexico mammals

Southern Pocket Gopher in New Mexico

Megascapheus umbrinus

Native to New Mexico

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

IUCN Red List status

NE – Not Evaluated

Not yet assessed against IUCN Red List criteria.

Southern pocket gopher in pine litterSouthern pocket gopher crossing pine litter from aboveSouthern pocket gopher at burrow entrance with orange incisors visibleSouthern pocket gopher side view on forest floor
Photo: Alberto Reyes Bautista · CC BY 4.0Southern pocket gopher in pine litterPhoto: Alberto Reyes Bautista · CC BY 4.0Southern pocket gopher crossing pine litter from abovePhoto: CK2AZ · CC BY 4.0Southern pocket gopher at burrow entrance with orange incisors visiblePhoto: Alberto Reyes Bautista · CC BY 4.0Southern pocket gopher side view on forest floor

Southern Pocket Gopher in New Mexico, by the numbers

Occasional in New Mexico 84th most recorded of 176 mammals logged in New Mexico

125 occurrence records

Records from 2000–2026.

125 total records count every New Mexico occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the monthly chart covers the 122 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Southern Pocket Gopher in New Mexico

Most sightings fall in August.

122 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
January7
February11
March16
April6
May8
June2
July1
August25
September3
October18
November20
December5

Monthly southern pocket gopher occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in New Mexico, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

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

Occurrence map

Where Southern Pocket Gopher has been recorded in New Mexico

125 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

125 New Mexico records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
State Trust Land 1

Protected places with the most southern pocket gopher 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
Hidalgo County 85
Bernalillo County 27
Catron County 4
Cibola County 2
Otero County 1
Union County 1
Doña Ana County 1
Socorro County 1
Colfax County 1
Lincoln County 1
Rio Arriba County 1

The complete county distribution, spread across 11 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 holds nearly all of the documented range for the southern pocket gopher: of 133 range-wide records, 124 come from New Mexico and only 9 from Arizona. Carson, Gila, and Lincoln National Forests anchor that record in the state’s high-elevation meadows and oak-juniper woodland, sky-island habitat the species rarely leaves.

Every one of the state’s 125 records comes from GBIF rather than a photographed iNaturalist sighting, typical for a rodent that surfaces only to push up telltale soil mounds and otherwise stays hidden below ground.

Counts bump up in January, May, August, and November rather than showing one clean peak. With a sample this small, that scattered pattern likely reflects when survey trapping happened rather than a genuine four-season activity cycle.

Occurrence data from GBIF.

Southern pocket gopher in pine litter
Full species profile Southern Pocket Gopher Megascapheus umbrinus Size 20–25 cm7.9–9.8 in Weight 100–200 g3.5–7.1 oz Lifespan 3 yr View the full profile

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
  • 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"