Petition Created To Protect Rare Mouse Species
The following is courtesy of the Center for Biological Diversity:
Petition Seeks California Endangered Species Protection for Pacific Pocket Mouse
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif.— As the Trump administration steps back from protecting imperiled animals, the Center for Biological Diversity today filed a petition to protect the Pacific pocket mouse under the California Endangered Species Act.
The petition to the California Fish and Game Commission notes that the Pacific pocket mouse is found only in three locations, with the species’ total occupied habitat estimated at less than 740 acres on the coast of Orange and San Diego counties.
Despite having federal protection since 1994, the Pacific pocket mouse remains at great risk of extinction due to continued habitat loss and fragmentation from development, as well as mounting threats of disease, predation and climate change.
“We’re at great risk of losing one of California’s smallest native mammals to extinction if we don’t protect this diminutive pocket mouse,” said Elizabeth Reid-Wainscoat. “More protections under state law will help the Pacific pocket mouse survive in the face of expanding development along our coast.”
With the federal government increasingly weak on species safeguards, state protection would help ensure the continued survival and eventual recovery of the Pacific pocket mouse. State protections would also help the species on non-federal lands in the Dana Point Preserve, which represents one-third of existing populations.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has twice denied requests to designate critical habitat for the Pacific pocket mouse, and none of the benchmarks in the recovery plan that show species improvement have been met, signifying that additional protections are needed.
Under the California Endangered Species Act, once the petition is accepted by the California Fish and Game Commission, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has three months to make an initial recommendation to the commission, which will then vote on the petition at a public hearing.
“If the Pacific pocket mouse wins protection under California law, our state can enact its own protections, giving this tiny mouse a better chance at survival,” said Reid-Wainscoat.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
