States Wildlife
Menu

Are there gila monsters in New Mexico?

Last checked November 3, 2026 against official sources.

On this page
  1. The answer
  2. Which ones
  3. Where in the US
  4. Lookalikes
  5. Sources

Yes.

The Gila monster's range reaches the Chihuahuan Desert in southwestern New Mexico. It is state-listed endangered and venomous.

New Mexico Department of Wildlife: “It occurs primarily in Sonoran Desert habitats of Arizona and Mexico, … with the limits of its range overlapping potions of the Mojave Desert in Utah, Nevada, and California, and the Chihuahuan Desert in southwestern New Mexico.” Source

How we answer questions

On New Mexico's official list

Gila Monster
Photo: Matt Berger · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist

Gila Monster

Heloderma suspectum

Venomous per New Mexico Department of Wildlife

Size
NPS: up to 22 inches (560 mm) long and over a pound (450 g), the largest lizard in the United States. AZGFD: up to 14 inches from snout to vent. NDOW lists 18-24 inches and 2-4 lb.
How to recognize it
  • Hard, rounded, beadlike scales; dark forked tongue; short fat tail
  • Short, stout legs with long, sharp-clawed toes; big head and round tail
Conservation
State NM: Endangered; State NM: Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) 2025
What the sources say

Venom: “Heloderma suspectum is the largest native, and only venomous, lizard in the United States.” (New Mexico Department of Wildlife)

Full Gila Monster guide

All lizards in the state: New Mexico lizards.

Where the Gila monster lives in the US

California: on the state's official listUtah: on the state's official listNevada: on the state's official listNew Mexico: on the state's official listArizona: on the state's official list
Official presence. 5 states where a state list or official source names it. Gray means no official record in our data, not that it is absent.
  • Native or listed
  • Nonnative or not established
  • No official record in our data
Utah: 5 recordsNevada: 5 recordsNew Mexico: 13 recordsArizona: 180 records
Observation records. Open-licence records on GBIF in 4 states. Records are sightings people shared, not confirmation that a population lives there.
  • 1–9
  • 10–99
  • 100–999
  • 1,000+

Gila monster: identification, range and danger

What else it could be

  • Western banded gecko
    Photo: Dylan C Thomas · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist

    Western banded gecko

    NPS says Gila monster hatchlings are sometimes confused with the banded gecko, a small, thin-skinned lizard. Hatchlings are much larger than an adult banded gecko.

When lizards are seen in New Mexico

2,812 records (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY).

Sources

  1. Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum) Recovery Plan. New Mexico Department of Wildlife (formerly New Mexico Department of Game and Fish). 5 April 2017; checked November 3, 2026.
    Quoted passages (2)
    “It occurs primarily in Sonoran Desert habitats of Arizona and Mexico, … with the limits of its range overlapping potions of the Mojave Desert in Utah, Nevada, and California, and the Chihuahuan Desert in southwestern New Mexico.”
    “Heloderma suspectum is the largest native, and only venomous, lizard in the United States.”
  2. BISON-M (Biota Information System of New Mexico) species search export: taxonomic name "Squamata". New Mexico Department of Wildlife (BISON-M, with Natural Heritage New Mexico). database queried November 3, 2026; checked November 3, 2026.
  3. GBIF.org occurrence records, human observations licensed CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only, accessed November 3, 2026. The datasets behind these counts are listed on our Sources page.