Saving the little Pacific pocket mouse from extinction

After facing extinction for nearly two decades, the Pacific pocket mouse may now have a fighting chance.

A four-year-old program at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park near Escondido is preparing to introduce into the wild its first batch of this mice species bred in captivity.

About 130 of the rodents are being raised at the park. Fifty of them are scheduled to be moved early next week to the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park in Orange County.

The program is being coordinated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The long-term goal is to find other compatible areas for the Pacific pocket mouse,” said Jenny Mehlow, a spokeswoman for San Diego Zoo Global, the nonprofit that operates the zoo. “We’re in the early stages.”

The endangered rodent’s native habitat stretches four miles from shore and from the El Segundo dunes in Los Angeles down to the U.S.-Mexico border. But today, Pacific pocket mice are found only near Camp Pendleton and in Dana Point, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Pacific pocket mice help ecosystems by eating and dispersing the seeds of native plants, as well as by digging holes that improve soil irrigation and encourage plant growth. This species is the smallest kind of mouse in North America, with the average adult weighing less than 8 grams, or less than a third of an ounce.

Many wildlife specialists feared the species had died off until some Pacific pocket mice were found again in the early 1990s. After much deliberation, the zoo’s conservation and research arm took 30 of the rodents into captivity in 2012 based on calculations the species wouldn’t survive on its own.

“It was decided that they needed to attempt to save them and bring them in for a captive-breeding program,” Mehlow said. “These mice were expected to be difficult to breed, but it went really well.”

To prepare the Laguna Coast park for the pocket mice, biologists have fenced off an acre of coastal sage scrub habitat to protect against predators such as coyotes and snakes. They also installed mesh cages with biodegradable materials to serve as nests for the mice.

joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com

Smith writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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