Nevada holds 15 documented western deer mouse records, a modest share of a species whose real strength lies farther west in Oregon, Washington, and California.
An inland edge of a Pacific-slope mouse
This deer mouse was only split from the classic Peromyscus maniculatus in 2019, and its core range runs along the Pacific states. Nevada’s small share of records sits at the inland edge of that range, concentrated in the high desert sagebrush of Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge near the Oregon border and along the Truckee River corridor around Washoe Lake State Park, both places where sagebrush, grass, and streamside cover give this generalist mouse the shelter it needs.
Two kinds of cover across a big state
Between those two anchor points, records also turn up across the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s scattered mountain ranges, the same pinyon-juniper and mixed-conifer country the species favors through much of the interior West. Nevada’s mix of Sierra Nevada foothill grassland in the west and open Great Basin sagebrush across the rest of the state gives this mouse two different kinds of cover to work, though its overall Nevada numbers stay modest next to the Pacific states.
Status in Nevada
Nevada lists the western deer mouse as native to its mapped range, though NatureServe hasn’t assigned the state a distinct subnational rank here, and the species has not yet received a global IUCN assessment. Its scattered Nevada records fit a generalist mouse working the edge of its range rather than any cause for concern.
Full species profile
