White-tailed antelope squirrels handle heat that sends most desert mammals into their burrows, staying active at midday with a flash of white tail curled over the back as they dash between shrubs. Petroglyph National Monument accounts for 17 of New Mexico’s named sightings, the state’s clearest cluster, with Chaco Culture National Historical Park’s high desert mesas adding a second concentration farther northwest.
Records show two separate rises, one in June and a larger one in October, an unusual double peak that likely reflects two different survey pushes rather than two breeding seasons.
NatureServe rates the species S4, Apparently Secure, in New Mexico, and with 345 records here the state holds a middling share of a range that runs heaviest through California and Nevada.
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