Silky pocket mice are among the smallest rodents in Kansas, weighing under half an ounce, with fur-lined cheek pouches they use to carry seeds back to a burrow without getting them damp. That build suits loose, sandy or gravelly ground more than heavy clay soil.
Only 14 records exist for the species statewide across more than two decades, and every one falls between June and September, with July alone accounting for 8 of the 14. That tight window likely says more about when surveyors were out looking in warm weather than about the mouse restricting its own activity to summer.
Every record comes from western Kansas. Scott County leads with 6, 5 of them at Scott Wildlife Area, and Logan, Stanton, Clark, and Wallace counties supply the rest, dry, sandy country where few people look closely enough to find one. NatureServe still ranks the species S4, apparently secure, statewide.
Full species profile
