Mouse has government jumping

WASHINGTON – An acrobatic mouse is threatening Bush administration efforts to give Western developers an upper hand over endangered species.

The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse is in fact a unique creature with “distinct evolutionary lineages that merit separate management consideration,” says a U.S. Geological Survey study presented Wednesday to senior Interior Department officials.

“Those populations facing demographic challenges should be afforded high conservation priority,” the study says.

That finding contradicts research touted by Interior Secretary Gale Norton last February when she proposed removing the mouse from the government’s endangered species list. Critics say it also undercuts the administration’s claim that it uses the best science available in promoting fewer protections for imperiled wildlife.

The previous study, which was done by a biologist since hired by Norton’s department, concluded there was no genetic difference between the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the much more common Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse.

Listed by the government as a threatened species since 1998, the Preble’s meadow mouse stands in the way of any project that could damage its habitat, a broad swath of Colorado and Wyoming. The 3-inch mouse uses its 6-inch tail, and strong hind legs to launch itself a foot and a half into the air, where it can abruptly switch directions in midflight. Nearly 31,000 acres were designated as critical habitat to be conserved for the recovery of the Preble’s meadow mouse, which has dwindled to an average of 44 mice per mile of stream because of urban sprawl.

The new study was conducted by Tim King, a USGS conservation geneticist based in West Virginia, and peer-reviewed by academic experts outside government. One of the reviewers, Eric Hallerman, a professor of fisheries and wildlife science at Virginia Tech, said King’s study debunks earlier work.

“It contradicts it fairly strongly,” Hallerman said.