N.M. Jumping mouse could be on endangered list

The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse would make a great superhero character. The mouse is semiaquatic with back legs that can propel it up to 3 feet, and its presence is fleeting: The mouse hibernates an average of nine months of the year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting comments on the proposal to list the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse as an endangered species and to designate a total of 193 miles of critical habitat for the mouse species in 12 counties across Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The deadline to submit comments is Aug. 19. The mouse lives along the banks of southwestern streams and depends on a habitat of tall, dense vegetation. The species hibernates about nine months per year, making precious waking moments crucial to gathering food to build up adequate fat reserves. According to Wild Earth Guardians, the mouse has been forced out of 70 to 80 percent of its historic range because of excessive livestock grazing; water use and management for agriculture and urban uses; and loss of beavers, whose dams help create the wetland habitats where the mouse thrives. Off-road vehicle recreation, camping, wildfires and subsequent erosion, flooding, ongoing drought and climate change also degrade the mouse’s habitat...more