The white-sided jackrabbit barely holds on in the United States at all, and New Mexico is close to its only American foothold. The state’s own conservation rank reflects that: NatureServe lists it S1, Critically Imperiled, on top of a Vulnerable rating from the IUCN worldwide.
Only 30 records exist here across more than two decades, spanning the southern refuge and river-corridor ground named in the record, including Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. That’s too thin a trickle to call a hotspot, just a handful of confirmed points on a mostly empty map.
The dated sightings lean toward early and midsummer, June through August. This hare is most active after dark, so warm nights with more people out looking likely explain that bump better than any real summer surge in numbers.
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