In a notice published Monday in the Federal Register, the agency said it would examiner whether Zapus
hudsonius preblei would continue to be considered threatened.
FWS is re-visiting the question whether to strip the species of protection on the basis of two de-listing petitions filed nine years ago.
The petitions to remove the mouse from the list of federally protected species were filed in 2003 by the state of Wyoming and an organization known as Coloradans for Water Conservation and Development.
Environmentalists are likely to object to any attempt to remove any or all of the species' populations from beneath the federal shield.
"There is no new information to support de-listing in Wyoming," Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an email message.
CBD is the organization that initially requested listing of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse in 1994.
Preble's meadow jumping mice are endemic from southeastern Wyoming south through Colorado's Front Range area. According to information posted on a FWS website, the animal depends on riparian corridors and densely-packed and undisturbed nearby grasslands for habitat. A nocturnal animal, the mouse does not range more than a hundred yards from the perimeter of a stream floodplain.
The Preble's meadow jumping mouse was originally added to the list of threatened and endangered species in May 1998.
The agency has previously attempted to eliminate the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from the list of endangered and threatened speices. In July 2008 FWS de-listed the mouse in Wyoming. A federal judge voided that decision in July 2011 and that animal was put back on the roster of safeguarded species the next month.
FWS will combine a periodic review of the species' status mandated by the same court order with its process of deciding again whether the 2003 de-listing petitions are meritorious.
Image courtesy Colorado Natural Heritage Program (a project of Colorado State University).
