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American Badger, Aubrey Valley near Seligman

I spent a few days here in 1989, the highlight of which was a trek down to the floor of the Grand Canyon for an overnight stay. I returned for a few days in September 1998 and again for 24 hours in 2010.

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument , April 2010 - Round-tailed Ground Squirrels are common around the visitors centre (this species is also common in the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix apparently).

Round-tailed Ground Squirrel

Chiricahua National Monument, September 1998 - Mexican Fox Squirrel (around the campsite), Variegated Ground Squirrel, Cliff Chipmunk, Javelina (Peccary).

North Rim, Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon, November 1989 – Bighorn Sheep on the main trail down to the canyon floor. Ringtail (eating most of our food throughout the night at a backcountry campsite on the canyon floor - I hung the food from a metal pole, which the Ringtails climbed like a ladder. So I greased the pole with butter, which did nothing to slow the Ringtails down. So I left the food under a pan weighted down with rocks. In the morning the pan and rocks were unmoved.... but the food had gone. It was a hungry walk back to the top).

In August 2010 I visited the North Rim and found Abert's Squirrel (the rather spectacular white-tailed subspecies) in the campground (though it took almost an hour to spot one). A different subspecies is also supposed to be common in suburban Flagstaff and the Flagstaff Aboretum is one place to look. There were also what appeared to be Colorado Chipmunks around the Canyon Rim II'm double checking that ID) and a herd of Bison on the drive in.

Trent Binford-Walsh told me that Western Spotted Skunks are easy to see at the base of the Canyon where they hang around Phantom Ranch looking for food.

Colorado Chipmunk (I think)

Montezuma’s Castle, November 1989 – Arizona Gray Squirrel.

Mount Lemmon, September 1998 – Coues’ White-tailed Deer (the Clavium subspecies).

MuleShoe Ranch, September 1998 – This is a really nice ecolodge sort of a place with Antelope Jackrabbit (probable), Hooded and Striped Skunks along the nature trail, Southern Long-nosed Bats feeding from the hummingbird feeders just milimetres from my face. A couple of nice Rattlesnakes too. Coatis and Javelinas are fairly common (though I didn’t see either here).

Seligman, April 2010 - a ranch just west of Seligman on Route 66, has had Black-footed Ferrets successsfully reintroduced. During the day Gunnison's Prarie Dogs are common, and at night you should have an excellent chance of spotlighting a Ferret along the northern side of Route 66 (the best area is the 10 mile stretch that starts 3 or 4 miles west of Seligman running through the Aubrey Valley). The ferrets are apparently most active between midnight and 6am. I spent 6 hours looking from 9pm to 3am but couldn't find one (a week before people had been seeing as many as 13 during a night's spotlighting!). Immensely frustrating and may have been because the weather had gotten a bit colder and windier, or may have been because I was crap at spotlighting :-( But I did see 3 Badgers, Mule Deer, a Kangaroo Rat (probably an Ord's), lots of Desert Cottontails and a Coyote.

Gunnison's Prarie Dog, Seligman

I returned in August 2010 and this time Jennifer Cordova and Trent Binford-Walsh from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (and the Ferret Recovery Project) also came out with me to make sure I didn't fail twice - which was extremely good of them (Jennifer had already provided a heap of info on where to look). They vowed to stay out til we found one! But a late night wasn't necessary. This time I found animals within 5 minutes of turning on the spotlight. A group of three ferrets were at a den about 50m south of Route 66 around mile marker 127. It was 10pm, a full moon and about 75F - the animals had bright green eyeshine. Matt Miller and I could approach the animals to within about 10 metres at which point they finally went underground. But -just as Trent had predicted - when we got to the bolt hole an animal started popping its head in and out to take a peek (and I was too close even to focus properly). A fabulous 20 minutes of mammal watching!

Black-footed Ferrets, Seligman

For more information see http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/blackfooted_ferret.shtml.

Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, August 2010 - the entrance road to this park (BLM/Bureau of Land Management road 1065, about 13 miles east of Jacob Lake off of Hwy 89A ) quite near to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is a site for Chisel-toothed Kangaroo Rats and John Fox found one along here in 2010. I spent an hour spotlighting here with Matt Miller and although I saw one Kangaroo Rat I couldn't see it well enough to be sure which species it was. There were a lot of bats feeding around the start of the road with clearly audible echo-location but apparently several species in the area fit this description.

Other People's Trip Reports
New Mexico/Arizona, 2010: some notes from John Fox on Antelope Jackrabbits and Banner-tailed Kangaroo Rats.

Patagonia Lake Area, 2010 : Alan Dahl, 2 days and the mammals included Coatis.

South-western USA, 2009: Mike Richardson, 3 weeks in Arizona, California and Texas & 22 species including a Bobcat.

South-western USA, 2004: Steve-Anyon Smith, one month in Arizona, California and Texas & 46 mammals... including an Armadillo.