cacomixtles and k-rats: lesser known mammals of the US southwest

August 3, 2026

In the southwestern USA, with its cacti, mountains, and deserts, there are certain stereotypical animals that everyone knows: the coyote howling at the moon, the scorpion scuttling on the sand, the roadrunner crossing the highway, the rattlesnake coiling up into a strike pose. 

But what many people don't know is that this region is a biodiversity hotspot, meaning it has more plant and animal species than surrounding regions. The southwestern deserts have some of the most bee species in the United States. Considering just the Chihuahuan Desert, there are at least 200 reptile species in the area. The state of New Mexico is home to 29 species of bats (Mississippi has 15, for comparison). 

There's a lot to talk about considering diversity in the southwest. Of course the obscure species like insects and even lizards and snakes are probably not known to most people. But what about mammals? It's hard to miss these (relatively) large and fuzzy relatives. Even then, there are some weird ones out there that most people don't know.

There's a lot more to mammals than the favorites of wolves and big cats. My goal is to bring awareness to the non-stereotypical desert mammals within the US and bring to light some of the weird ones that you may have never heard of before. 

ringtail (Bassariscus astutus)

Is that a raccoon or a fox? Well, it's more of a raccoon than anything else. Here is the magnificent ringtail, a member of the raccoon family (Procyonidae) and native to the deserts of the US southwest. It's a small mammal that is fox or cat-like with a long, fluffy striped tail. The ringtail is the state mammal of Arizona.

They are also called cacomixtle, or cacomistle, in spanish, which comes from a Nathuatl Indian (a Mexican tribe) word tlacomiztli, meaning "half mountain lion". Tiny panthers, I guess!

It is nocturnal and a climber with semi-retractable claws. Like a lot of other climbers, it has a flexible ankle joint that can rotate. It nests in tree hollows and seems to prefer areas with water (don't we all).

Ringtails are omnivorous and eat just about anything - small birds, mammals, lizards, berries, insects, fruit. Even though its small and cute, it is a carnivore. They aren't very picky and will eat whatever is most abundant.

Why the stripes? It's pretty unique to see such stark patterns on a mammal - usually only found in lemurs and skunks. We don't actually know for sure, but researchers think its for communication with each other, or to distract a predator. A predator striking the tail might allow the rest of the animal to get away.

I know they're very rare and difficult to see, probably because they're so shy and reclusive. I used to help maintain a large wildlife camera grid across parts of New Mexico and we often got photos of these guys, but I almost never saw them in 

I have only seen them once. I was in a remote area of the Chihuahuan Desert and was driving looking for animals. Literally didn't get 5 minutes on the road until I saw the eyeshine of two of them! They were up a tree and moved super fast. They ran up and down a couple of times and were almost playing, I'll never forget it.








Fans of the film Coraline might be familiar with jumping mice, which remind me of these animals (although jumping mice exist as a separate group also). There are lots of rodents found in the desert but none as charismatic as the kangaroo rat, or k-rat. There are several different species around but all have the super long tail and kangaroo feet.

Students of animal physiology are probably familiar with the k-rat. They are well-studied for their water-retention adaptations, as kangaroo rats can go their entire lives without drinking water. They extract all the water they need from the seeds they eat. K-rats have specialized kidney anatomy to do this, and have a super long kidney region called the loop of Henle that maximizes extracting water before anything is excreted as urine or waste. 

They are nocturnal rodents that spend a lot of time in burrows, only coming out at night to forage. They move by hopping - a type of movement called saltatory locomotion. Males fight each other over territories during the breeding season, delivering kicks that I imagine are pretty cute.








Being a tiny rodent in the land of rattlesnakes must be a difficult life. Luckily k-rats have lightning-fast reflexes and use their tail to change direction during a mid-air jump, allowing them to avoid the strikes of snakes.








You're undoubtedly familiar with red foxes and may also know grey foxes, a common species in the desert. You've probably seen photos of super cute fennec foxes from the Sahara Desert in Africa, with their chihuahua-like proportions. But maybe you haven't heard of the kit fox, another fox species that is native to the US. The name is a little confusing because baby foxes are also called 'kits'.

Kit foxes are the smallest canids (canine species) in North America, usually not weighing more than 6 lbs. While their ears don't reach fennec fox levels of large, they are still pretty big. Their species name macrotis is latin for 'big ears'. They're found in New Mexico, Arizona, California, western Texas, northern Mexico, and a bit into Oregon.

Kit foxes have hairy feet - these provide traction in sand and might protect them from hot surface temperatures. Like k-rats, they rarely drink water. Actually, they eat a lot of k-rats so they're kind of stealing the water that the rats can hold onto!

Like many desert animals, these foxes spend a lot of time in a den to escape the sun. Kit foxes keep several dens that they rotate across using - tricky!

There is a subspecies - the San Joaquin kit fox - that is endangered. It's restricted only to the San Joaquin Valley in California, where it's habitat is being encroached on by human settlement.








Everyone is familiar with bats but not many people have looked at one up close. Most people probably imagine a black, furry creature, but pallid bats are masters of the desert with their pale fur. This bat species is a desert specialist and part of the large group of vesper bats. It's kind of unique in that it is the only living species in its family Antrozoidae, indicating that its a bit different from the closest related species.

I associated these bats with open desert habitats in the the Chihuahuan and Mojave Deserts, where they are pretty common. They are large compared to some of the other Myotis bat species in the area. Most importantly, they have enormous ears that make them very appealing, to maximize the cuteness factor. Also for hearing insects I guess.

Pallid bats are categorized as 'insectivores', meaning they eat insects, but they should really be classified as terrorizing flying monsters to anything smaller than or equal to a spiny lizard. They are known for taking crazy prey items, from grasshoppers and dragonflies to small lizards, scorpions, and even being part-time pollinators for sipping agave and saguaro cacti nectar (and fruit!). Pallid bats are crazy. There are lots of internet videos of them dismantling scorpions. They are ferocious. I love them.

In 2009 researchers discovered they also visit flowering cacti. The bats were caught landing on flowers and sipping nectar - crazy considering there are bat species that very specifically evolved to feed almost only on this item. Guess the pallid bat didn't get the memo about specialists.








And you thought we were done with weird bats? We have several 'traditional' nectar bats (not pallid bats) in the US. The cool nectarivore and frugivore species aren't limited to just the tropics! One of these is the greater long-nosed bat, a migratory species that enters New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas during the summer, before returning back to central Mexico.

These bats have elongated noses to maximize cuteness (and for sipping nectar), and very long sticky tongues, like an anteater. They are capable of hovering flight, and will feed from cacti flowers during the blooming period. Long-nosed bats are highly efficient pollinators and transport huge loads of pollen across the landscape on their fur.








They also visit agaves, a large succulent, and are essential for maintaining the genetic diversity of this plant through pollination. If you drink tequila, then you have agaves to thank for it (tequila is made from agaves), and you also have bats to thank for it! Thank you, bats.








Another strange raccoon or fox-like animal! Like the ringtail, this mammal is also part of the raccoon family Procyonidae. They are found in the US in New Mexico, Arizona, and I think Texas a little bit. They also live throughout Mexico and South America. They often walk around with their long tails held erect, thought to help keep the group keep track of one another.

Like the ringtails, coatis also have semi-retractable claws and rotatable ankles, so they're good at climbing. Their long snout is little flexible and can move around a bit like a pig snout - they forage in the undergrowth a lot. Coatis are really secretive and difficult to see - I've never seen one in the wild and I feel like I've been all over the desert.

I don't think we know too much about them, because they're difficult to observe. There is an excellent book that someone wrote about their personal project observing coatis in the Arizona desert - 'Chulo: A Year Among the Coatimundi' , by Bill Gilber in the 80s¹. It has some fascinating information about their social groups and how they communicate food sources to the group. The author says they use vocalizations to indicate the type of food they found, and how much of it there is.

Coatis are omnivorous and will eat anything - small mammals, birds, eggs, reptiles, plants, berries, etc. They can apparently be kept as pets pretty easily.








I think out of all the animals listed, this is the one people have most likely heard of? The javelina is a pig or boar-like mammal, but its actually not very closely related to that group. It's in its own family, Tayassuidae. They are also called peccary (plural: peccaries), but I'm more familiar with using javelina, so will use that here. They are hoofed mammals that can weigh up to 88 lbs.

They are like spiky, bristly pigs and grow some pretty sharp tusks. The tusks are not apparent just from looking at them (they grow downward, not outward), but I've heard of more than one dog that got shredded by one of these.

Javelina are social and live in herds. They are omnivorous and will eat anything, including prickly pear cacti. A lot of animal eat prickly pear but I don't see how they do it honestly.

They are pretty common in the desert and I've seen them many times. I usually mistake them for a dog at first. They made the news a lot recently for tearing up Arizona golf courses, which is pretty funny.

There's also this really cute kid's book called Josephina Javelina, about one that longs to be a ballerina. It's really cute!

Wrapping It Up

And that's all I have for these mammals. I don't discuss mammals that often nowadays and am more focused on insects and reptiles right now, but mammals definitely get the most attention from the public. 

Did you know all or some of these animals beforehand? Which strange animals do you know about from your region?

Also wanted to say for my fellow Blaugust-participants: I'm really enjoying reading everyone's blogs and posts, been a ton of fun so far!

¹ the link I have provided is to the fully scanned book on archive.org!

-jakalopes