Perdido Key Beach Mouse Recovery Team Recognized for Conservation Efforts

The Perdido Key Beach Mouse Recovery Team was recently recognized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a 2017 National Recovery Champion for the Southeast Region, an award that honors national conservation efforts to protect endangered species and their habitats. 

The team includes staff from the Escambia County Natural Resources Management Department, along with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Brevard Zoo, Palm Beach Zoo and Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo. 

The Recovery Champion Award is presented by FWS each year in conjunction with Endangered Species Day, which is May 18. Endangered Species Day was established to encourage the people of the United States to become educated about, and aware of, threats to species, success stories in species recovery, and the opportunity to promote species conservation worldwide. It has since been celebrated in more than a dozen other countries as well.

For more than 10 years, the Perdido Key Beach Mouse Recovery Team has been instrumental in recovery efforts for the endangered Perdido Key beach mouse. Together, this team of partners from different agencies has served as a highly collaborative group that:

• Provides emergency and long-term facilities to successfully captive breed beach mice.
• Conducts and develops outreach material for zoos, FWS and the public.
• Prepares, transports and assists with releases of captive-born Perdido Key beach mice back to the wild.
• Developed and deployed a non-invasive monitoring system throughout Perdido Key beach mouse habitat.
• Conducts the monitoring, data collection and analysis needed to inform land managers and FWS of the status of the Perdido Key beach mouse.
• Initiated an outreach program focusing on “Got Habitat?” to help the public understand the relationship between protecting habitat for endangered species as well as humans.

To learn more about the Perdido Key beach mouse, click here.

Perdido Key beach mouse in hand. Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.