Southern AZ
I spent 5 days in Southern AZ recently, mostly sightseeing but also looking for animals (October). I did an early morning drive into Saguaro East seeing only a cottontail. After visiting some historic churches and eating sonoran hotdogs, I returned that evening as the light began to change to find what I was looking for, a group of Javalina crossing the road. The only other animal seen was a rattlesnake in the road. I spent the next day hiking in the superstition mountains and no mammals were seen there. In the morning a visit was paid to sweetlands on the other side of tucson. Primarily I was there to see the round tailed ground squirrels but saw nothing but holes. Questioning the bird watchers in the park none had seen any either. Hypothesis were offered from the park staff did something to predators must have eaten them. A quick google search shows they become dormant sometime in late August or early September and this seems to be the most likely explanation for why I was not seeing them. Nothing was seen besides birds all morning but as I was beginning to wrap up late morning a bobcat suddenly trod by with a cotton rat. Some roadrunners and quail were also seen here. I transferred over to Chiricahua to look for more wildlife but the park ranger I found on the trails said she’d not been seeing many coati yet and I saw none hiking from the faraway ranch trailhead up to the visitor center. I drove the road once at night seeing only a blacktailed rattlesnake, deer, and a jackrabbit on the road outside the park. After returning to Tucson I made a trek up Mt Lemmon and found the Albert’s squirrels at Rose Canyon Lake.
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