Preble's meadow jumping mouse

I don't know much about mammals, but this notice from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service caught my eye:

On February 2, 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a 12-Month finding on a petition to delist the Preble's meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) and proposed to remove the mouse from the Federal list of threatened and endangered species. The delisting proposal was primarily based on the best available science at that time, genetic research conducted by Dr. Rob Roy Ramey of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Seeking to use the best science possible in making a final decision, the Service also commissioned Dr. Tim King of the U.S. Geological Survey to do an independent genetic analysis of several meadow jumping mouse subspecies. The USGS study results, provided to the Service on January 25, 2006, raise significant questions about the conclusions drawn by Dr. Ramey in his study.

I pointed out last year (entries on 5 February and 8 February) that there were serious problems with the proposal to delist the Preble's meadow jumping mouse. I haven't read the report from Tim King, but I am pleased to see that USFWS will “put together a panel comprised of experts in genetics, taxonomy and ecosystem processes to assess the issues of taxonomy raised by the two reports and evaluate current threats to the mouse and its extinction risk."

The notice was in an e-mail from fws-lists@lists.fws.gov. I haven't seen a reference to it at the USFWS Virtual Newsroom yet, but I presume it will appear there before long.