BISON-M

Biota Information System of New Mexico (BISON-M) provides information on the legal status and biology of thousands of species found in New Mexico. See the below tabs for more information on this publically accessible website.

Biota Information System of New Mexico (BISON-M)  provides information on the legal status and biology of thousands of species found in New Mexico. Information can be obtained for individual species (Species Booklets and Species Simple Search), counties (County Reports), and via more advanced queries (Species Search). BISON-M is a living database maintained by both Natural Heritage New Mexico and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Please contact the BISON-M/Share with Wildlife Coordinator, Karen Gaines, with any comments or recommendations for species account updates.

Karen Gaines
BISON-M/Share with Wildlife Coordinator
Ecological and Environmental Planning
505-795-2319
karenh.gaines@dgf.nm.gov

There are four main search functions available through the Biota Information System of New Mexico website (BISON-M; https://bison-m.org). These searches constitute the primary functionality of the website. This tab provides some examples of the sorts of information that can be gleaned from each of these searches.

Species Search is by far the most powerful search option on the BISON-M website. It allows the user to query all fields in the database that stores the information that is accessible on the website. It is possible to generate species lists that meet very specific search criteria. For example, if you want to know how many birds that are associated with pinyon-juniper habitats can be found in Santa Fe County, you’d select the following search options on the Species Search page:

As another example, if you want to know how many species of amphibians have been documented as being impacted by chytrid fungus, you could perform the following query on the Species Search page:

County Report is the simplest, most user-friendly search option on the BISON-M website. If you simply wish to obtain a list of species associated with a particular County in New Mexico, County Report is the best search to use. For example, if you want a pdf of a list of species found in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, you can enter the below search terms on the County Report page:

Document Search allows you to access documents (i.e., references) associated with species accounts in BISON-M. This search is more likely to provide information on documents that were more recently associated with species accounts and are likely to have a PDF version accessible through the BISON-M website. For information on older references, it is more useful to look at the “Reference “section of the species of interest. For example, if you wish to get a list of documents published between 2015 and 2019 that pertain to the Jemez Mountains salamander that are available through the BISON-M website, you can do the below search on the Document Search page:

Contract Search allows you to access many of the reports produced as a result of projects funded through the Share with Wildlife Program at New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Share with Wildlife is a donation-based grant program that funds wildlife research, education, rehabilitation, and habitat enhancement projects. Population of this search is ongoing and not yet complete, but many reports are currently available. As an example, if you wished to know how many wildlife research projects were completed in 2017, you could perform the below search on the Contract Search page: