Jumping mice live in wet, grassy places, and Oregon’s records of the northern Pacific jumping mouse follow that rule. Reports run down the Coast Range and along the west slope of the Cascades. Lane, Lincoln, and Tillamook counties lead, and the Siuslaw National Forest is the single most reported block of land. Crater Lake National Park adds a high-elevation cluster on the Cascade crest. The mouse reaches well above the coastal meadows wherever a streamside stays damp.
The seasonal pattern is as clear as the geography. Reports climb from May to an August crest, then fall to almost nothing between November and February. Jumping mice hibernate through the cold months, so the winter gap is biology rather than absence. The summer surge also tracks when hikers and survey crews are out. Read the counts as records, not as a population estimate. NatureServe considers the species apparently secure in Oregon. The record’s breadth, 20 counties with at least one report, fits that grade.
Full species profile
