Mississippi’s fulvous harvest mouse record is a tale of two forests. Franklin County, home to much of Homochitto National Forest in the state’s southwest, leads with 20 records. Scott County, anchored by Bienville National Forest, adds ten. Together the two national forests supply most of the state’s 40 reports, which says as much about where mammalogists trap as about where the mouse lives.
The dates argue the same point. February and March hold 27 of the 40 records, a cool-season pileup that mirrors survey schedules, not mouse behavior. Fulvous harvest mice are active all year in Mississippi’s mild climate, weaving their grass nests above ground in old fields, briar tangles, and forest edge. Nobody sees that without setting traps, and the trapping happens in late winter.
Bolivar County’s six records from the Delta show the species isn’t only a national-forest story; rank field edges in the farmed flatlands suit it too. NatureServe lists the mouse as Unranked in Mississippi, meaning the record is too patchy to grade. The honest summary: probably widespread in the right grassy cover, documented mainly where surveys have run, and waiting on someone to work the counties in between.
Full species profile
