Spurious species: mice vs. landowners.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Fish and Wildlife Service listed jumping mice under endangered species, real estates locked for development to protect the species - Brief article

IN 1998, THE U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, which inhabits river valleys along the eastern flank of the Rockies, as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, leaving many landowners unable to develop their land. More than 31,000 acres of private and public property were effectively locked up.

That might change. Last year Rob Roy Ramey, then-curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, published a study in Animal Conservation concluding, based on genetic and morphological comparisons, that the hapless rodent was no different from other, more common jumping mice. Landowners soon petitioned to have the mouse removed from the endangered species list...