The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reviewed a petition to protect the Anacapa deer mouse under the Endangered Species Act and has concluded the petition did not contain substantial scientific data that the petitioned action might be warranted. The negative petition finding was published in the Federal Register October 28, 2006.
The Service made the determination in response to a petition received in November 2002 from the Channel Islands Animal Protection Association and The Fund for Animals to emergency list the Anacapa deer mouse as a threatened or endangered species. Under the Act, the Service is required to review the petition to decide whether it contains substantial scientific information that listing may be warranted in a process known as a 90-day finding.
The Anacapa deer mouse is native to Anacapa Island, which is part of Channel Islands National Park located off the southern California coast. Deer mice occupy all eight of the Channel Islands and each has a different subspecies of mouse.
The petition asked the Service to emergency list the Anacapa deer mouse, citing that the mouse was threatened by the poisoning of non-native black rats on Anacapa between 2001 and 2004. In its finding, the Service concludes Anacapa deer mice were not threatened by the rat eradication program and that after black rats were eliminated from the island, the Anacapa deer mouse population rebounded. Black rats often prey on Anacapa deer mice. The two rodents also compete for the same food sources and occupy the same habitats.
A copy of the finding about the Anacapa Deer mouse can be found at: http://www.fws.gov/ventura/ or by contacting the Ventura Fish and Wildlife office at (805) 644-1766.
