Twenty years of trying pays off: endangered pocket mice get a third new home in California

The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has helped establish a third reintroduced population of endangered Pacific pocket mice at North San Mateo, a training area within Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The milestone caps 20 years of conservation work to recover one of North America's most endangered mammals — since launching its Pacific Pocket Mouse Conservation Program in 2006, the alliance has released more than 500 mice into new and existing populations across the species' native range. Pocket mice are ecosystem engineers: their burrows improve soil and shelter other species, bringing ecological functions back to coastal ecosystems.