Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse
Look first for long bicolored tail, large hind feet, and a dark stripe along the back, then confirm it in dense streamside vegetation along the colorado front range and southeastern wyoming. Those two clues make Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse much easier to identify responsibly in Colorado.
Artwork inspired by Charles Partridge Adams
Preble’s meadow jumping mouse is a small riparian subspecies with enlarged hind feet and a tail longer than its body. It uses dense grasses, shrubs, and moist banks along Front Range streams, moving between floodplain cover and nearby uplands.
Learn its habitat instead: intact stream corridors, natural flooding, connected vegetation, and room for channel movement are more informative than trying to flush a protected animal. Observe habitat from established paths and never set live traps, lift cover objects, or enter closed riparian restoration areas. Active chiefly from late spring into early autumn, then hibernates for many months.
- Status
- Federally threatened riparian subspecies
- Best clue
- Long bicolored tail, large hind feet, and a dark stripe along the back
- Colorado habitat
- Dense streamside vegetation along the Colorado Front Range and southeastern Wyoming
Quick guide
- Best evidence
- Agency surveys and documented tracks, not pursuit
- Protect
- Dense streamside cover and undisturbed bank vegetation
Four field checks for Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse
- Respect rarity
- This threatened nocturnal mouse is unlikely to be identified responsibly during a casual walk.
- Read structure
- A very long bicolored tail and enlarged hind feet distinguish jumping mice from common deer mice.
- Use context
- Records belong in dense riparian vegetation along suitable Front Range and Wyoming streams.
- Leave cover intact
- Never trap, handle, clear vegetation, or enter restricted habitat for an observation.
Good to know
Its long hibernation means late-season disturbance can matter even when no mouse is visible above ground; underground refuge is part of the habitat.
Notice these
- Long bicolored tail, large hind feet, and a dark stripe along the back
- Dense streamside vegetation along the Colorado Front Range and southeastern Wyoming
- Federally threatened riparian subspecies