The Animals Of Nevada

Section 01

The Most Mountainous State, And The Driest

Nevada is the driest state in the country, averaging under ten inches of precipitation a year, and it is also the most mountainous, with more than 300 named ranges. Those two facts together explain nearly all of its wildlife.

Almost all of Nevada lies in the Great Basin, a region where no water reaches the sea. Rivers end in sinks and playas rather than oceans. The ranges run north to south, separated by wide sagebrush valleys, and each one rises through sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, and mountain mahogany to conifer and sometimes alpine tundra at the top.

Biologists call this a sky island system, and Nevada's version is the largest in North America. Species stranded on individual ranges after the Pleistocene, when the basins held lakes and the climate was cooler, have been isolated ever since. That produced an extraordinary amount of endemism in small, immobile animals: springsnails, pupfish, and dace confined to single springs or single ranges.

Nevada is therefore a paradox. It looks empty and supports relatively few large animals, but it holds one of the highest concentrations of endemic aquatic species in the country. The Devils Hole pupfish, in a water-filled cavern in the Amargosa Valley, has one of the smallest natural ranges of any vertebrate on Earth, and its entire wild population lives on a single shallow rock shelf.

Section 02

Nevada's Official State Animals

The desert tortoise designation is more fraught. It is federally threatened, can live over 50 years, spends most of its life in burrows, and stores water in its bladder for months. It is also directly in the path of solar energy development across southern Nevada, which puts the state reptile at the centre of a genuine conflict between two environmental goals.

Section 03

Habitats By Region, And Who Lives In Each

1. Sagebrush steppe basins

The dominant habitat across northern and central Nevada, and the most threatened. Greater sage-grouse depend on it entirely, and Nevada holds a substantial share of the species' remaining range. Also pronghorn, ground squirrels, pygmy rabbit which is a sagebrush obligate, sage thrasher, Brewer's sparrow, and kit fox.

2. Pinyon-juniper woodland

The mid-elevation belt on nearly every range. Pinyon jay, which caches pinyon pine seeds and is essential to the tree's reproduction, has declined sharply and is now a species of high conservation concern. Also mule deer, which use pinyon-juniper as winter range, plus mountain lion and bobcat.

3. Sky island summits

Higher ranges including the Snake, Ruby, Toiyabe, and Spring mountains carry limber pine, bristlecone pine, aspen, and alpine habitat. Each holds isolated populations, and some have endemic butterflies and land snails. The Spring Mountains near Las Vegas alone have several endemic invertebrates and a distinct subspecies of Palmer's chipmunk found nowhere else. See Great Basin National Park.

4. Mojave Desert, southern Nevada

Lower, hotter, and drier, with Joshua tree and creosote. Desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep, chuckwalla, Gila monster at the northern edge of its range, banded gecko, kangaroo rats, and roadrunner. Springs here support endemic pupfish and springsnails.

5. Springs, seeps, and desert wetlands

Nevada's biological crown jewels are tiny. Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a spring complex in the Amargosa Valley, holds more endemic species in a small area than almost anywhere in the United States, including several pupfish, springsnails, and a naucorid bug. Nearby Devils Hole holds the Devils Hole pupfish. These systems depend entirely on groundwater, which makes them vulnerable to pumping many miles away.

6. Lakes and the Truckee system

Pyramid Lake, Walker Lake, and Lake Tahoe on the California border. Pyramid holds Lahontan cutthroat and the cui-ui, a large sucker found nowhere else and sacred to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. Walker Lake has become too saline for fish as its inflow was diverted. Related: why Lake Tahoe fights invasive species.

Section 04

Desert Springs And The Smallest Ranges On Earth

Nevada's most remarkable animals are almost all small, aquatic, and confined to single water sources.

• Devils Hole pupfish: an inch-long fish living in a geothermal limestone cavern in the Amargosa Valley. The entire wild population depends on a shallow rock shelf near the surface where the algae it eats grows, and numbers have at times fallen below 40 adults. A 1976 Supreme Court decision established that federal reservation of land carries an implied reservation of the groundwater needed to sustain it, a ruling that shaped western water law and came about because of this fish.
• Other pupfish: Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish, Warm Springs pupfish, and several more, each in its own spring system. The Tecopa pupfish, in California just across the line, went extinct after its springs were modified for bathhouses, and it was the first animal delisted because of extinction.
• Springsnails: Nevada has well over 100 springsnail taxa, many endemic to individual springs, making them one of the most locally endemic animal groups in North America.
• Moapa dace: confined to a few thermal springs in the Muddy River headwaters, with a total population that has at times numbered a few hundred fish.
• Cui-ui: a large sucker endemic to Pyramid Lake, which can live over 40 years and was nearly lost when Derby Dam cut off spawning access up the Truckee River.
• Relict dace and speckled dace forms: isolated in individual valleys since the Pleistocene lakes dried.

Section 05

Mammals Of Nevada

• Desert bighorn sheep: the state animal, with Nevada holding one of the largest populations anywhere. The state has conducted extensive translocations to restock ranges where sheep had been eliminated, and it also has Rocky Mountain and California bighorn in the north.
• Mule deer: the main big game animal, undertaking long seasonal migrations between summer range on the mountains and winter range in sagebrush and pinyon-juniper. Highway crossings built for these migrations in Nevada are among the better-documented examples in the West.
• Pronghorn and elk: pronghorn in the northern valleys, elk re-established in several ranges after extirpation.
• Mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, kit fox, gray fox, badger, ringtail: the predator guild. Kit foxes are desert specialists that rarely need to drink.
• Black bear: present in the Sierra front and Carson Range, expanding, and a management issue around Lake Tahoe communities.
• Pygmy rabbit: the smallest rabbit in North America and a sagebrush obligate that digs its own burrows.
• Kangaroo rats, pocket mice, woodrats, chipmunks, and ground squirrels: the small-mammal base, with several species restricted to particular ranges. Palmer's chipmunk lives only in the Spring Mountains.
• Bats: 23 species, one of the highest state totals, using mine adits and rock crevices. Abandoned mines are critical roosts, and gating rather than sealing them is now standard practice. See where bats live.
• Feral horses and burros: Nevada holds more free-roaming horses than any other state, protected by federal law since 1971. Their grazing pressure on springs and riparian areas is one of the most contested wildlife management issues in the Great Basin.

Gone: grizzly bear, gray wolf, and bison. Wolves have begun appearing as rare dispersers from California and Oregon.

Section 06

Birds Of Nevada

Around 490 species have been recorded, a high total for a dry interior state, largely because desert wetlands act as magnets in an arid landscape.

• Sagebrush birds: greater sage-grouse, which perform elaborate lek displays, plus sage thrasher, sagebrush sparrow, Brewer's sparrow, and loggerhead shrike. All decline with sagebrush loss to fire and cheatgrass.
• Pinyon-juniper birds: pinyon jay, juniper titmouse, gray flycatcher, and Woodhouse's scrub-jay. The pinyon jay's steep decline is one of the more concerning trends in the interior West.
• Wetland concentrations: the Lahontan Valley marshes at Stillwater are a critical Pacific Flyway stopover, holding hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and waterfowl in a desert setting. Anaho Island in Pyramid Lake hosts one of the largest American white pelican colonies in North America.
• Raptors: golden eagle, ferruginous hawk, prairie falcon, peregrine falcon, and burrowing owl.
• Mountain birds: mountain bluebird (the state bird), Clark's nutcracker, black rosy-finch on the highest ranges, and Himalayan snowcock, introduced to the Ruby Mountains in the 1960s and now the only population in North America, which draws birders specifically to hike for it.

Section 07

Reptiles, Amphibians, And Fish

Nevada has around 52 reptile and 15 amphibian species, with reptiles dominating in the south.

Reptiles: desert tortoise (the state reptile, federally threatened), Gila monster at its northern limit in the southeast, chuckwalla, desert iguana, banded gecko, several whiptails, collared lizard, and short-horned lizard. Six rattlesnake species occur, including the sidewinder, Mojave, speckled, and Great Basin rattlesnakes.

Amphibians: few, and mostly tied to springs and streams. The relict leopard frog was thought extinct and rediscovered in the 1990s in a few springs near Lake Mead. Also Amargosa toad, restricted to the Oasis Valley near Beatty, plus Great Basin spadefoot, Columbia spotted frog, and northern leopard frog.

Fish: this is where Nevada is remarkable. Despite being the driest state, it has a large number of endemic fish, most of them small and confined to single springs or basins. Lahontan cutthroat trout, cui-ui, Moapa dace, Devils Hole and other pupfish, Railroad Valley springfish, White River springfish, and numerous dace and chub forms. A high proportion are federally listed, and several Nevada fish have already gone extinct, including the Ash Meadows killifish and the Raycraft Ranch killifish.

Section 08

Dangerous Animals In Nevada

• Rattlesnakes: six species. The Mojave rattlesnake in the south has a neurotoxic venom component making bites more medically complex, and the Great Basin rattlesnake is the common northern species. Bites are uncommon.
• Gila monster: in the far southeast only, rarely seen, and its bite is painful but rarely dangerous.
• Africanized honeybees: established in southern Nevada, and stinging insects cause the most animal-related deaths.
• Scorpions and black widow spiders: the Arizona bark scorpion reaches southern Nevada and is the most medically significant.
• Mule deer and elk: vehicle collisions, especially on highways crossing migration corridors.
• Mountain lion and black bear: both present, both rarely a threat. Tahoe-area bears are food-conditioned rather than aggressive.
• Heat and dehydration: worth stating plainly, because they harm vastly more people in Nevada than every animal combined. Desert hiking in summer kills visitors most years.

Section 09

Endangered And Protected Species

Nevada's pressures are unusual and unusually direct. Groundwater pumping can eliminate a species by drying one spring. Cheatgrass invasion has made sagebrush fires larger and more frequent, and sagebrush does not resprout after fire, so each burn converts habitat to annual grassland permanently. Utility-scale solar development in the Mojave overlaps desert tortoise habitat. Feral horse and burro grazing concentrates around the same springs the endemic fish and snails need. And mining, Nevada's defining industry, both disturbs habitat and draws down groundwater.

Section 10

Where To See Wildlife In Nevada

• Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge: boardwalks over crystal springs with endemic pupfish visible, the highest concentration of endemic species in the region.
• Ruby Mountains and Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge: Himalayan snowcock, marsh birds, and alpine habitat.
• Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge: desert wetland with enormous shorebird and waterfowl migration.
• Great Basin National Park: bristlecone pines, Wheeler Peak alpine species, and Lehman Caves.
• Pyramid Lake and Anaho Island: Lahontan cutthroat fishery and one of North America's largest pelican colonies, viewed from shore.
• Sheldon and Desert National Wildlife Refuges: pronghorn and sagebrush species in the northwest, desert bighorn in the south.
• Spring Mountains, near Las Vegas: endemic invertebrates, Palmer's chipmunk, and a rapid elevation gradient.
• Valley of Fire and Lake Mead area: desert tortoise, bighorn, and reptile diversity.