Choctawhatchee Beach Mouse
Peromyscus polionotus allophrys
courtesy US Fish & Wildlife Service
Federally Endangered

   The Choctawhatchee beach mouse is listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State of Florida. Critical habitat is designated along 12.6 miles of coast in Walton and Bay Counties, including Grayton Beach State Recreation Area and Topsail Hill Preserve in Walton County, Shell Island and the mainland section of St. Andrew State Recreation Area in Bay County.
   This is one of several Florida subspecies of oldfield mouse restricted to coastal sand dune ecosystems. These small, light-colored mice burrow and excavate nests within dune sand among sea oats, grasses, herbs and small shrubs. These burrows generally have a main hole and a second hole that is often used to escape a predator at or within the main entrance. Unlike the house mouse, beach mice are not known to live in buildings or frequent garbage sites.

 Like many small mammals, the Choctawhatchee beach mouse is an important component of a complex food web. They are omnivores, feeding on both plants and animals. The beach mouse's diet consists mostly of the seeds and fruits of plants that grow among the dunes, including parts of sea oats, bluestem, dune spurge, evening primrose, oaks, magnolias and youpon hollies. Their diet frequently includes invertebrates such as beetles.
   The Choctawhatchee beach mouse and its relatives have survived thousands of years since barrier islands were formed. The continued existence and recovery of the Choctawhatchee beach mouse depends largely on the conservation of a healthy dunes ecosystem. A coastal zone development plan that includes dune preservation benefit both landowner and wildlife habitat. The Choctawhatchee beach mouse, in turn, may be preyed upon by a wide variety of larger mammals, such as foxes, herons, owls and snakes. Feral cats in and adjacent to dwindling beach mouse habitat also contribute to the decline of beach mouse populations. Choctawhatchee beach mice are nocturnal  and active at night -  and are rarely, if ever, seen by beach visitors.

CRITICAL UPDATE

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is authorizing a taking of four acres of the beach mouse' habitat to enable St.Joe/Arvida resort residential development Watercolor to build in dunes next to Grayton Beach State Park, as negotiated in the 1996 Consent Decree from the Topsail Hill Eminent Domain Litigation.