The Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse is a small rodent that lives in riparian communities along the Front Range of Colorado.  This area of Colorado is experiencing unprecedented urban growth.  As a result, the mouse was listed as Threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act in 1998.  In an effort to better understand and protect mouse habitat the Colorado Division of Wildlife undertook a habitat modeling effort with U.S. Geologic Survey Biological Resources staff.  A logistic regression model for habitat similarity was generated using mouse capture sites versus random locations within the riparian landscape.  The locations were buffered by 1/2 mile and the acreage of each riparian community in that buffer was summed up.  In addition several landscape measures of habitat, such as distance to riparian community type and riparian community patch size were calculated.  The model predicted mouse capture sites at an 80% accuracy rate.  The most important variables in the model were amount of riparian shrub and distance to riparian shrub.  The resulting model is being used to assist Habitat Conservation Planning (HCP's) efforts for several Front Range counties.

RIPARIAN DATA SMITH CREEK, NORTH OF COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO

 

 

PREBLE'S HABITAT SIMILARITY MODEL FOR SMITH CREEK

 
Return to Classification Scheme page                Return to Applications page