Of mice and marshes: Surveying salties to save them
It’s five in the morning, and Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge remains in the tight velvet grip of night. All is peaceful and quiet, despite the fact that the toll plaza of the Dumbarton Bridge is less than a quarter-mile away. By 5:15, car dome lights and slamming doors have transformed this lonely spot at the watery edge of Newark into a hub of activity. … The first survey of the salt marsh harvest mouse conducted across the rodent’s entire San Francisco Bay-centered range. In 1970, Reithrodontomys raviventris became one of the first animals added to the federal endangered species list. Found along the damp fringes of San Francisco Bay, the salt marsh harvest mouse is the only mammal entirely restricted to coastal marshes—specifically, those found in the San Francisco Estuary.
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