The ultimate goal is to characterize the fauna of the Chihuahuan Desert throughout its extent. A start has been made toward this goal ("Chihuahuan Desert Fauna" on the menu to the left), but this is very much a project under construction. The situation near the northern periphery of the desert is shown here through checklists centered on the Greater El Paso Region. As shown on the menu, the area's butterflies, fishes, amphibians and reptiles (herps), birds, mammals, and late Pleistocene fossil vertebrates currently are represented. In some cases, links involving the animals' names in these checklists will take you to the Chihuahuan Desert fauna pages; those animals having images and descriptive information are preceded by the symbol §, while links without that symbol will take you to data about the animal. Occasionally, you may be guided to taxa off-site; these are denoted by a link after the animals' names that abbreviate the off-site name. To return to the checklist pages after visiting a link, use your browser's "Back" button.
In addition to these checklists, databases of the herbarium, ornithological, mammalogical, and paleontological collections of the UTEP Biodiversity Collections are online during normal working hours.
Last Update: 30 Aug 2012