White Sands Department of the Interior White Sands National Monument
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National Park Service White Sands Department of the Interior White Sands National Monument Common Animal Species List NPS Photo/© Sally King Sally Photo/© NPS hite Sands National Monument is home to over 500 different animal Wspecies. Despite the harsh environment of the dunefield, these incredible creatures have learned to adapt and survive in this southern New Mexico desert. While many of these animals are nocturnal, there are still signs of their activity well into the daylight hours. Keep your eyes open and watch for evidence of the many animal species, both large and small, that call White Sands their home. Amphibians Commonly Seen: 6 Species Great Plains Toad Spadefoot Toads (three species) Reptiles Commonly Seen: 26 Species Lizards Snakes Bleached Earless Lizard Plains Blackhead Snake Collared Lizard Prarie Rattlesnake Desert Spiny Lizard Sonora Gopher Snake Horned Lizard (two species) Western Coachwhip Snake Little Striped Whiptail Lizard Western Diamondback Snake Long-nosed Leopard Lizard New Mexico Whiptail Lizard Southern Prarie Lizard Mammals Commonly Seen: 44 Species Apache Pocket Mouse Grey Fox Badger Kit Fox Blacktail Jackrabbit Kangaroo Rat Bobcat Oryx (African) Coyote Pallid Bat Deer Mouse Porcupine Desert Cottontail White-footed Mouse Desert Pocket Gopher Woodrat (three species) Fish White Sands Pupfish 1 Species Invertebrates Commonly Seen: 500+ Species Black Widow Nevada Buck Moth Caterpillar 100+ Families Camel Cricket Tarantula 12 Orders Carpenter Bee Tarantula Hawk Wasp Darkling Beetle White-Lined Sphinx Moth To learn more about White Sands, visit http://www.nps.gov/whsa The Mexican spadefoot toad is the breed and feed on insects. These official state amphibian of New amphibians lay eggs in the pools of Mexico and gets its name from the water that form during this rainy distinctive spade-like projections season. The eggs hatch quickly and on the hind legs. These formations the resulting tadpoles have evolved allow the species to dig into sandy to mature before the puddles of soils where they spend most of their water dry up. You are most likely Mexican Spadefoot Toad life underground. The Spadefoot to find this animal in any low-lying Spea multiplicata Toad will emerge during monsoon area of the park where puddles may season in the late summer to develop. The Texas horned lizard receives canine predators, who cannot its name from the portions of bone stand the taste of the blood. These that extend from the animal’s skull lizards feed mainly on ants, but will and resemble horns. This gives also eat other insects. Requiring the lizard a fearsome appearance, vitamin D for survival, the Texas but it is not its primary defense Horned Lizard spends most of its mechanism. While its coloration day sunbathing on rocks. It sleeps Texas Horned Lizard provides camouflage, this animal underground at night. You are most Phrynosoma cornutum can fend off predators by squirting a likely to find this lizard in the highly stream of blood out of its eyes. This vegetated areas of the park during is particularly effective in avoiding the warmer, sunnier months. The pallid bat is a common North during the summer surrounding American bat species and can the visitor center. Female pallid often be found roosting on the bats give birth in early June and bats buildings of White Sands National reach full size only eight weeks later. Monument. These insectivores Skilled climbers, they can be found utilize echolocation to sense their scaling the walls near their roosts. surrounding environment and to Look for these fuzzy critters in the patio during the summer months or Pallid Bat more easily feed on flying insects. Antrozous pallidus These bats hibernate during the in the nearby bat houses. winter months, but are often seen The American badger is a feisty hunt nearby. This clever creature and territorial carnivore. With a has also been known to plug exit flattened body and a wedge-shaped holes of burrowing animals before head, this animal is built for life tunneling underground to capture underground and will dig burrows their prey. You are most likely to see in shallow, sandy soil with its long a badger during the warmer months claws. Badgers primarily eat rodents, around the heavily vegetated areas American Badger but will also consume lizards and of the park. Taxidea taxus scavenge the prey of coyotes that The White Sands pupfish is a rare algae. This is the only fish native to species of fish that can only be the Tularosa Basin, likely because found in the Tularosa Basin here in the only surface water available is southern New Mexico. There is little typically shallow, salty, and warm - water in the area, but these little fish not ideal conditions for most fish. can be found in small streams and The White Sands pupfish is a state- ponds throughout the region. These listed endangered species and only White Sands Pupfish fish live to be about three years of lives in the Basin’s Lost River. Cyprinodon tularosa age and feed on small insects and The tarantula hawk is among the several weeks later. This wasp’s largest species of wasps (averaging 2 stinger can be up to 1/3 inch long. inches long) and is the state insect of The sting is among the most painful New Mexico. This insect receives its in the insect world. The Tarantula name from the way the female lays Hawk Wasp rarely stings unless her eggs - she paralyzes a tarantula provoked, however. This insect with a menacing sting and lays an feeds on nectar from flowers found egg on the spider’s abdomen. Once Tarantula Hawk Wasp within the park and is most likely to Pepsis spp. the larva hatch, they feed on the be seen in the summer months. tarantula until reaching adulthood Revised 3/22/2014.