The salt-marsh harvest mouse, also known as the red-bellied harvest mouse, is an endangered rodent endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area salt marshes in California. The two distinct subspecies are both endangered and listed together on federal and state endangered-species lists. The northern subspecies is lighter in color and inhabits the northern marshes of the bay, and the southern subspecies lives in the East and South Bay marshes. They are both quite similar in appearance to their congener species, the western harvest mouse, R. megalotis, to which they are not closely related. Genetic studies of the northern subspecies have revealed that the salt-marsh harvest mouse is most closely related to the plains harvest mouse, R. montanus, which occurs now in the Midwest. The endangered designation of the salt-marsh harvest mouse is due to its limited range, historic decline in population and continuing threat of habitat loss due to development encroachment on the perimeter of the San Francisco Bay.
Zapodidae, the jumping mice, is a family of mouse-like rodents in North America and China.
Dipodoidea is a superfamily of rodents, also known as dipodoids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. This superfamily includes over 50 species among the 16 genera in 3 families. They include the jerboas, jumping mice, and birch mice. Different species are found in grassland, deserts, and forests. They are all capable of saltation, a feature that is most highly evolved in the desert-dwelling jerboas.
Zapus is a genus of North American jumping mouse. It is the only genus whose members have the dental formula 1.0.1.31.0.0.3. Zapus are the only extant mammals aside from the Aye-aye with a total of 18 teeth.
The meadow jumping mouse is the most widely distributed mouse in the family Zapodidae. Its range extends from the Atlantic coast in the east to the Great Plains west, and from the arctic tree lines in Canada and Alaska to the north, and Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, and New Mexico to the south. In mid-2014, the New Mexico subspecies of the meadow jumping mouse, Zapus hudsonius luteus, was listed as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The Anastasia Island beach mouse is a subspecies of the oldfield mouse of the southeastern United States. It occurs in the sand dunes of Florida beaches. It has been classified by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species due to the specificity of its habitat and the natural and human-induced destruction thereof.
The western jumping mouse, is a species of rodent in the family Zapodidae. It is found in Canada and the United States.
The Pacific jumping mouse is a species of rodent in the family Zapodidae. Found in Canada and the United States, its natural habitats are temperate grassland and swamps.
Preble's shrew is a small shrew distributed across the Great Basin of the United States and southern British Columbia in Canada.
Boulder Creek is a 31.4-mile-long (50.5 km) creek draining the Rocky Mountains to the west of Boulder, Colorado, as well as the city itself and surrounding plains.
The Perdido Key beach mouse is an endangered subspecies of the oldfield mouse. It is found on Perdido Key, Florida. The small white and gray mouse, weighing only 13–16 g (0.46–0.56 oz), blends in well with the white quartz sand of northern Gulf coast beaches.
The Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is 5,237-acre (21.19 km2) National Wildlife Refuge in the United States, located approximately 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Denver, Colorado. The refuge is situated west of the cities of Broomfield and Westminster and situated north of the city of Arvada.
St. Vrain State Park, formerly known as Barbour Ponds, is a Colorado state park. The park hosts year-round camping. It is a popular birding destination, hosting the states largest rookery of Blue Heron, it is home to several other bird species as well including migrating waterfowl, songbirds and the occasional bald eagle. Other park activities include year round fishing and hiking. There are plans for a reservoir to be built at the park named Blue Heron Reservoir.
There are at least 50 small mammal species known to occur in Yellowstone National Park.
The ecology of the Rocky Mountains is diverse due to the effects of a variety of environmental factors. The Rocky Mountains are the major mountain range in western North America, running from the far north of British Columbia in Canada to New Mexico in the southwestern United States, climbing from the Great Plains at or below 1,800 feet (550 m) to peaks of over 14,000 feet (4,300 m). Temperature and rainfall varies greatly also and thus the Rockies are home to a mixture of habitats including the alpine, subalpine and boreal habitats of the Northern Rocky Mountains in British Columbia and Alberta, the coniferous forests of Montana and Idaho, the wetlands and prairie where the Rockies meet the plains, a different mix of conifers on the Yellowstone Plateau in Wyoming and in the high Rockies of Colorado and New Mexico, and finally the alpine tundra of the highest elevations.
