Featured Species

Arizona is an ecologically diverse state that provides habitat to a wide variety of plants and animals

The state contains part or all of the four North American deserts: the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Mojave, and Great Basin. In addition, Arizona is known for its grasslands, forests, mountains, and rivers, which cover many biological zones of life, from lowland hot, dry deserts to high-altitude cooler, wetter coniferous forests and alpine tundra.

There are 72 threatened, endangered, or candidate species in Arizona, including 10 mammals, 9 birds, 5 reptiles, 2 amphibians, 21 fishes, 2 snails, 1 insect, and 22 plants. Many of these species also have designated critical habitat.  Additionally, 534 species of birds are known to occur in Arizona, with the southern part of the state renowned as a birding hotspot.

Our species

Click on the species below for more information, including contact information for AESFO biologists working with each species (scroll to the end of the species page and click "Staff Profile" in the "Refine Your Search" section).

Amphibians

Arizona toad
Chiricahua leopard frog
Lowland leopard frog
Northern leopard frog
Plains leopard frog
Relict leopard frog
Sonoran tiger salamander
Tarahumara frog

Birds

Bald eagle
Burrowing owl
Cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl
California condor
California least tern
Golden eagle
Masked bobwhite
Mexican spotted owl
Northern aplomado falcon
Pinyon jay
Southwestern willow flycatcher
Thick-billed parrot
Yellow-billed cuckoo
Whooping crane
Wilson's phalarope
Yuma Ridgway's rail

Fishes

Apache trout
Beautiful shiner
Bonytail
Colorado pikeminnow
Desert pupfish
Flannelmouth sucker (in CO River)
Gila chub
Gila topminnow
Gila trout
Headwater chub
Humpback chub
Little Colorado spinedace
Little Colorado sucker spp.
Loach minnow
Longfin dace (incl. Rio Sonoyta)
Razorback sucker
Roundtail chub
Sonora chub
Spikedace
Striped mullet
Virgin chub
Virgin spinedace
Woundfin
Yaqui catfish
Yaqui chub
Zuni bluehead sucker

Invertebrates

American bumble bee
Ferris' copper butterfly
Mojave poppy bee
Monarch butterfly
Sabino dancer damselfly
Southwest spring firefly
Stephan's riffle beetle
Suckley cuckoo bumble bee
Variable cuckoo bumble bee
Western Bumble Bee

Mammals

Black-footed ferret
Black-tailed prairie dog
Gunnison’s prairie dog
Hoary bat
Hualapai Mexican vole
Jaguar
Jaguarundi (Sinaloan)
Lesser long-nosed bat
Mexican wolf
Mount Graham red squirrel
New Mexico Meadow jumping mouse
Ocelot
Sonoran pronghorn

Mollusks

Apache springsnail
California floater
Gila tryonia
Grand Wash springsnail
Huachuca springsnail
Huachuca woodland snail
Kanab ambersnail
Kingman springsnail
Page springsnail
Phoenix talussnail
Pinaleño talussnail
Quitobaquito tryonia
San Bernadino springsnail
San Xavier talussnail
Sonoran talussnail
Black River springsnail
Verde Rim springsnail
Wet Canyon talussnail

Plants

Acuña cactus
Arizona agave
Arizona bugbane
Arizona cliffrose
Arizona eryngo
Arizona hedgehog cactus
Arizona willow
Bartram's stonecrop
Beardless chinch weed
Brady hedgehog cactus
Reclusive ladies' tresses
Small Indian breadroot
Chisos coral-root
Cochise pincushion cactus
Coleman’s coralroot
Fickeisen plains cactus
Fish Creek fleabane
Gentry's indigobush
Gierisch mallow
Goodding's onion
Paradox milkvetch
Huachuca Mountain milkvetch
Huachuca waterumbel
Jones’ cycladenia
Jaeger's Joshua tree
Joshua tree
Kearney's blue-star
Las Vegas bearpoppy
Lemmon fleabane
Fredonia wild-buckwheat
Navajo bladderpod
Navajo sedge
Nichol's echinocactus
Kaibab plains cactus
Navajo pincushion cactus
Peirson’s milkvetch
Longtubercle beehive cactus
Smooth catseye
San Francisco Peaks ragwort
Santa Rita throwup weed
Sentry milk-vetch
Siler's pincushion cactus
Geyer's milkvetch
Tumamoc globe-berry
Welsh's milkweed
Whitemargin beardtongue
Wright’s thistle
Rhizome fleabane

Reptiles

Arizona night lizard
Arizona striped whiptail
Bezy’s night lizard
Desert massasauga
Flat-tailed horned lizard
Desert tortoise
Narrow-headed garter snake
New Mexico ridge-nosed rattlesnake
Northern Mexican garter snake
Sonoran desert tortoise
Sonoran mud turtle
Tucson shovel-nosed snake
Yuman desert fringe-toed lizard