Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse

Using its long tail as a rudder, a Preble's meadow jumping mouse can launch itself 18 inches into the air and switch direction mid-flight. It can travel three feet in a single jump. Photo © Anne Ruggles

A Dwindling Front Range Species
In the last century, widespread habitat loss and fragmentation due to development, water diversions, overgrazing, water pollution, and gravel and sand mining resulted in a rapid decline of already rare Preble’s populations. By 2030, the Front Range of Colorado and Wyoming is expected to grow to 5.7 million residents, and resulting pressures on Preble’s fragile streamside habitat will only increase. Another principal threat to the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse is political in nature: special interest groups have aggressively voiced their interest in stripping Endangered Species Act protections from the Preble’s everywhere it lives.

Natural History
The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse is a tiny rodent with a body approximately three inches long with a 4 to 6-inch long tail. This species has large hind feet, long hind legs, an indistinct dark, broad stripe on its back that runs from head to tail, and is bordered on either side by gray to orange-brown fur. This shy, largely nocturnal mouse spends most of its time out of sight, foraging beneath long grasses for seeds, fruit, fungi, and insects. For a mouse, it’s slow to reproduce, having two litters each year with an average of five young in each litter. Biologists believe that the species arrived in Colorado and Wyoming during the last ice age and remained after the glaciers receded. In the drier post-glacial climate, the mouse was confined to streamside ecosystems where moisture was plentiful. Its range now stretches from the foothills of southeastern Wyoming southward along the eastern edge of the Front Range to Colorado Springs.

Conservation Status
-Threatened Species, Endangered Species Act in Colorado (No formal federal protection in Wyoming)
-Colorado Division of Wildlife Threatened Species
-Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy Science Forum Species of Most Concern

Action Taken
We are working to see that the Endangered Species Act protections for the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse are enforced throughout its range and that adequate critical habitat is designated. The recent decision to split federal protections for the mouse based on state lines is a new and dangerous interpretation of the ESA, and one not based on biological boundaries. We continue to repel political attacks aimed at the Preble’s and ensure that decisions on the mouse’s protection are based on the best available science.

Press Resources

Preble’s High-Res Photo 1 (photo courtesy Anne Ruggles)
Preble’s High-Res Photo 2 (photo courtesy Anne Ruggles)

Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse

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