Species location data for terrestrial vertebrates and butterflies in Arizona and New Mexico, 2005

This database contains point locations of species observations for terrestrial vertebrates (birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles) and butterflies for Arizona and New Mexico published in Bender et al. (2005). Each point observation is described by information such as the species name, date observed, details of the observer and method, animal information, and data quality. Source data was compiled from various sources, including museums, private collections, established bird surveys (North American Breeding Bird Survey and Audubon Christmas Bird Count Survey), and government and non-government organizations. These data were originally available via DVD with Bender et al. (2005) and are now available via the Forest Service Research Data Archive.
The purpose of this database was to provide a catalog of geospatially referenced species observations for Arizona and New Mexico. These data are valuable to scientists and managers for the purpose of mapping species distributions from known occurrences, and may also be used, in aggregate, to indicate the distribution of biodiversity resources in the region. When these data are accompanied by sufficient environmental GIS data, the species observation database is valuable for modeling observed species occurrence to predict the likely occurrence of species in areas that have been undersampled.
Original metadata created on 02/14/2002. Metadata was updated on 11/08/2019 when these data became available via the Forest Service Research Data Archive. On 01/30/2024, a new file (\Data\observed\spprecords.accdb) was added to this data publication which simply provides an updated format for the file (\Data\observed\spprecords.mdb). A few minor metadata updates were also made at this time. For more information about these data, see Bender et al. (2005).