Alabama Beach Mouse

One of the goals of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to assist threatened and endangered species to recover to the point that protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is no longer needed.

The Service prepares recovery plans to describe actions that are considered necessary for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species. The plans establish criteria for recognizing the recovery levels for downlisting (reclassifying a species from endangered to threatened) or delisting (recovered sufficiently to be removed from the list of species protected under the ESA) the species. The plans also provide an estimate of the time and cost for implementing needed recovery measures.

The Alabama beach mouse (ABM) was listed as endangered in June 1985. A recovery plan was finalized in 1987 to address recovery needs for the ABM, along with two other subspecies of the old field mouse (Peromyscus polionotus) which inhabit the beaches and dunes of the Gulf coast of Alabama and Florida--Choctawhatchee beach mouse and Perdido Key beach mouse.

The Service is currently developing a comprehensive revision of the 1987 recovery plan. This revision focuses specifically on the recovery needs of the Alabama beach mouse, and incorporates new information related to the range of the species, updated information regarding known habitat and life history factors, and an updated framework for addressing problems of the species and prioritizing actions necessary for recovery. The revision will be limited to the Alabama beach mouse, and will not include recovery information on the Choctawhatchee beach mouse or the Perdido Key beach mouse.

The Service has been assisted in this recovery plan revision by a Recovery Team made up of representatives from local, state and federal government agencies, academic researchers, developers, conservationists, landowners, and knowledgeable Service employees.

The links to the left will direct you to additional information about the Alabama beach mouse, the recovery planning process, and the efforts which are currently underway.

A draft Recovery Plan is expected to soon be released for public comment. Release of the plan will be announced in the Federal Register, and an electronic copy of the document will be available on this website.