One of the reasons Albuquerque seems so tropical during summertime is the dramatic annual appearance of snowy egrets, waterbirds that fly up the Rio Grande from the Gulf of Mexico and nest in the cottonwoods along the river.
Beavers in the Bosque
Nearly exterminated in New Mexico by the end of the nineteenth century due to trapping to make men’s top hats, the beaver was finally placed in protected status in the state in 1897.