Joshua Tree Wildlife: What Animals Live in Joshua Tree

What animals live in Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Park counts 350 kinds of animals with a backbone. There are 57 mammals, 16 of them bats, more than 250 birds, 46 reptiles, from lizards and 26 kinds of snakes to the desert tortoise, and two amphibians, the California tree frog and the red-spotted toad. Add thousands of kinds of insects, spiders and their kin, more than 75 of them butterflies.

Two deserts meet in the park. The Mojave reaches across its northern part, and the Colorado Desert, a western arm of the Sonoran, covers the south and east. Some animals live in both: the desert tortoise keeps to the creosote lowlands in the Mojave and to rocky hillsides in the Colorado, and each desert has its own sidewinder.

The animals you are most likely to see

The park's own list of the animals visitors see most:

• White-tailed antelope ground squirrels
• Jackrabbits
• Coyotes
• Red-tailed hawks
• Ravens
• Great Basin fence lizards

Also among the most common: kangaroo rats, which come out at night, and Gambel's quail, greater roadrunners and desert spiny lizards. Golden eagles hunt in the park regularly.

The ones that are harder to find

The park calls foxes, bobcats, bighorn sheep and mule deer rarer sights. The gray fox and the desert kit fox both live here, along with the American badger and the ringtail, and mountain lions, which are uncommon, keep to the mountains.

Desert tortoises spend 95 percent of their lives underground. Snakes are seen less often than lizards, though 26 kinds live in the park, seven of them rattlesnakes. Scorpions come out at night and are seldom met. The park says a tarantula's venom is no worse than a bee sting, and a scorpion's sting is about like a wasp's.

Desert bighorn sheep

The park estimates that 100 to 200 desert bighorn live in it, in three groups: in the Eagle Mountains around the Cottonwood and Lost Palms oases, in the Little San Bernardino Mountains, which take in Keys View, and around the Wonderland of Rocks and Queen Mountain. The last group is the one visitors see most often.

Look for them in the early morning and evening, and near water. They sometimes come down to Barker Dam. Keep at least 75 feet away, and if a sheep moves off because of you, you are too close.

The desert tortoise

Desert tortoises live all through the park and are seen most in spring. The US Fish and Wildlife Service says a tortoise spends up to nine months a year in its burrow and is most active from March to June and in September and October. The Mojave desert tortoise has been federally listed as threatened since 1990, and since 2024 California lists it as endangered.

Never pick one up. A frightened tortoise empties its bladder, and in the desert losing that water can be life threatening. Handling a wild tortoise is also against federal law. The one exception the park makes is a tortoise about to be hit on a road: move it about 50 feet off the road in the direction it was heading. Slow down where you see tortoise crossing signs. The park's speed limits are set low partly to protect them.

When to see wildlife in Joshua Tree

Go at dawn or dusk. Many desert animals come out mainly around sunrise and sunset, and the park says the desert is most alive at night. In the middle of the day you will mostly see birds, lizards and ground squirrels. Animals are also most active after rain, while reptiles keep out of sight when it is too cold and mammals when it is too hot.

• Spring: the desert tortoises come out, the toads and tree frogs come back to life after winter rain, and birds arrive for the nesting season.
• Summer: most small mammals spend the day in burrows and come out once it cools after dark, and rattlesnakes are more active.
• Fall: tortoises are out again in September and October, and a tarantula crossing your path in autumn is most likely a male looking for a mate.
• Winter: most reptiles and many small rodents and insects go dormant, but it is a good time for birds, because many species migrate here and the winter birds remain into March.

Where to look

There is no one best place, the park says, and crowded spots scare animals away. Water draws them, so its oases and old water impoundments are good places to start:

• Barker Dam, one of the park's birding spots, where bighorn sheep sometimes come to water
• The Oasis of Mara in Twentynine Palms, a fan palm oasis with a paved path
• Cottonwood Spring, in the south of the park, with cottonwood trees and fan palms
• Lost Palms Oasis, 49 Palms Oasis and Smith Water Canyon, each a longer hike
• Queen Valley and Lost Horse Valley

In the palm oases, look for bighorn sheep, Gambel's quail and coyotes. Slow your pace and look up from the trail now and then. The open country makes birds much easier to see here than in most national parks.

How to act around wildlife

All wildlife in the park is protected by federal law, and it is illegal to approach, handle, capture or harass any wild animal. In practice:

• Never feed wildlife. Animals that get handouts stop foraging and often starve, and the ones that learn to beg wait by the roads and get hit by cars.
• Keep your distance. If an animal moves because of you, you are too close. Give bighorn sheep at least 75 feet.
• Pack your food and trash away. Ravens and rodents get into anything left out, and ravens drawn by litter also prey on hatchling tortoises.
• Watch where you put your hands and feet. Snakes rest in holes, under rocks and in thick brush. If one bites you, walk slowly back to your car and go straight to the nearest hospital.
• Drive slowly and scan the road and shoulders, especially around dawn and dusk. Look under your car before you pull out of a parking space, since animals use parked cars for shade.
• No spotlighting. Using a light to look for animals at night is not allowed.
• Dogs are not allowed on the park's hiking trails, apart from the paved paths at the Oasis of Mara and Keys View, because their scent keeps wildlife from returning to places like the palm oases. Everywhere else a dog must remain within 100 feet of roads, parking areas and campgrounds, on a leash 6 feet long or less.

Wildlife outside the park

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, in Morongo Valley, is free and open daily all year, and it has recorded 263 kinds of birds. Mule deer, bobcats, raccoons and coyotes live there, and in the hot, dry summer months its water brings bighorn sheep into the canyon. Bring binoculars and a camera, and leave the dog at home, because dogs are not allowed in the preserve.

Whitewater Preserve, up a canyon road off Interstate 10 near the Highway 62 exit, has bighorn sheep, deer and bear in its canyon, and rare birds like the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher in the trees and brush along the river.

Desert animals elsewhere in California

Joshua Tree is one of several big desert parks in California. Mojave National Preserve, farther north, counts 50 mammals, more than 200 birds, 36 reptiles, three amphibians and three fish. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park takes part of its name from borrego, the Spanish word for bighorn sheep, and the peninsular bighorn that range from the San Jacinto Mountains south to the Mexican border are federally listed as endangered.

Before you go

• You need an entrance pass. Buy it ahead on Recreation.gov and save it to your phone, or pay at the entrance station by card. Check the park's site for the current fee.
• No reservation is needed to enter, and the park is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
• There is no gas, food or drinking water inside the park. Fill the tank before you go in and carry at least a gallon of water per person for the day.
• Cell service in the park is very limited. Download offline maps before you leave town.
• The park is busiest on weekends and holidays from October to May and over spring break. On those days, get to the trailheads early.
• Check the park's current alerts at nps.gov/jotr for roads or trails closed after a storm.