Nebraska’s olive-backed pocket mouse record since 2000 comes down to 2 GBIF reports, both from Cheyenne County in the southern Panhandle. That’s sandy-soil country, and a mouse that needs loose ground for burrows and seed caches has good reason to turn up there.
Both reports are dated to September, and two records can’t carry any seasonal or range interpretation. A few nights of trapping in the right sandy pasture could redraw the picture quickly.
What gives the record its weight is the rank. NatureServe lists the mouse as S1, critically imperiled in Nebraska, even though the species is secure across its full range. Nebraska sits near the southeastern edge of that range, and edge populations are where a species thins first. Each confirmed Panhandle or Sandhills report helps mark where the mouse still hangs on.
Full species profile
