Fauna of Nevada

The fauna of the U.S. state of Nevada is mostly species adapted to desert, temperature extremes and to lack of moisture.

Nevada is located within the Nearctic faunistic realm in a region containing an assemblage of species similar to Northern Africa.

[4] Animals in Nevada include scorpions, mountain lions, snakes, lizards, spiders, wolves, coyotes, foxes, ground squirrels, rabbits, falcons, ravens, desert tortoise, hawks, eagles, bobcats, sheep, deer, pronghorns, geckos, owls, bats and horned toads.

[6] The majority of Nevada's breeding birds are landbirds, but a large percentage of the priority species are shorebirds and waterbirds, reflecting the importance of water bodies in the desert.

Desert bighorn sheep also have keen eyesight to detect predators such as bobcats, mountain lions and coyotes.

Other mammals in Nevada are the Merriam's shrew, white-tailed antelope squirrel, cactus mouse, gray fox, mustang horse, kit fox, kangaroo rat, mountain cottontail, desert bighorn sheep, pack rat, Townsend's big-eared bat, coyotes, collared peccary, Rocky Mountain goat, pronghorn, wild donkeys, mountain lion, raccoons, Ring-tailed cat, American black bear, striped skunk, short-tailed weasel, badger, lynx, Sierra Nevada red fox, grey wolf, western jumping mouse, lodgepole chipmunk, American beaver, Yuma bat, and several others.

The scorpions of Nevada are well represented by four main families: Buthidae, Caraboctonidae, Vaejovidae and the intriguingly named Superstitioniidae.

In parts of the state, the population has decreased thirty to fifty percent due to predation, disease, vandalism and illegal collection by humans.

The giant hairy scorpion is the largest scorpion in North America and is one of the 23 species of scorpion in Nevada . [ 1 ]
A dark-morph ferruginous hawk on nest.
More than 250 American black bears live on the Nevadan side of Lake Tahoe . [ 7 ]
The desert tortoise is a native of the Mojave Desert in Southern Nevada .