Perdido Key Beach Mouse

Taxobox | name = Perdido Key Beach Mouse
status = EN
trend = unknown
status_system = iucn2.3


regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
superfamilia = Muroidea
familia = Muridae
subfamilia = Neotominae
genus = "Peromyscus"
species = "P. polionotus"
subspecies = "P. p. trissyllepsis"
trinomial = "Peromyscus polionotus trissyllepsis"
trinomial_authority = Bowen, 1968The Perdido Key Beach Mouse is an endangered subspecies of the Oldfield Mouse, which lives on Perdido Key, Florida.

Dune plants are the primary source of food for the Perdido Key Beach Mouse. [cite web|url=http://www.fws.gov/endangered/i/a/saa8f.html|title=www.fws.gov/endangered/i/a/saa8f.html |accessdate=2007-05-29] The small white and gray mouse, weighing only 13-16 grams, blends in well with the white quartz sand of northern Gulf coast beaches. While the Perdido Key Beach Mouse feeds primarily on the seeds of sea oats and bluestem, it will occasionally eat insects.

The Perdido Key beach mouse is a nocturnal animal, spending most daylight hours in their burrows. Unlike many species, beach mice are monogamous, with mated pairs tending to remain together as long as both live. A typical beach mouse pair averages 3-4 offspring per litter and has roughly 3 litters per year.

In contrast to its inland relatives, the Perdido Key Beach Mouse steers clear of people, buildings and trash, instead preferring to meander among the dunes near its burrow. Mouse burrows are usually located in the dunes at the base of a shrub, clump of grass or near some vegetated cover. The burrow itself consists of an entrance tube, a nest cavity, and an escape tube which is closed off but near the surface of the sand. If an intruder, such as a snake or crab, enters a beach mouse burrow, mice make a hasty retreat out the escape tube.

The Perdido Key beach mouse was listed as an endangered species in 1985. Loss of habitat to development is considered to be the main factor which led to the decline of the species. Hurricanes have also taken their toll on the endangered mouse.The beach mouse population at Perdido Key was nearly wiped out in the mid-1990s when hurricanes Erin and Opal ravaged Perdido Key’s beaches. Numbering less than 40 after the storms, the mice have regenerated quite well, with current population estimates near 500. While populations appear to be growing, the Perdido Key Beach Mouse will probably never make it off the endangered species list because of continued habitat loss and degradation.

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