Bringing the Pacific Pocket Mouse Back to Life

Tiny, nocturnal, and critically endangered, the Pacific pocket mouse is one of the most vulnerable mammals in North America.

It’s also one of the NROC’s ongoing comeback stories. Since the 1930s, the mouse’s habitat of fine, sandy soils along the Southern California coastline has been taken over by urban development and agriculture. In fact, in 1973, these adorable rodents were thought to be extinct. But two decades later, they were remarkably rediscovered in Orange County’s Dana Point Headlands.

A scientifically focused recovery plan was made to champion these critters, which in turn support the ecosystem, gathering and burying seeds that help coastal habitats regenerate, like nature’s tiniest gardeners. In 2016, a collaborative recovery project was launched at the NROC, with 50 mice bred at the San Diego Zoo coming to Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. The road hasn’t been easy, but there have been major wins along the way, including captive-born mice successfully breeding in the wild, and both released and wild-born mice showing strong short-term survival rates.

“The work has been incredibly challenging, perhaps more than we anticipated, but we have learned a great deal about the mouse and have had quite a bit of success,” said Will Miller, a biomonitor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “I remain optimistic that we will be able to establish additional populations of Pacific pocket mice that are needed to help safeguard the survival of the species.”

The long-term goal is to boost their winter survival and establish a viable Pacific pocket mouse population at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. There’s still work to be done, but thanks to this kind of collaborative conservation, this little mouse has a bright future here.