March 18, 2010

Mullican receives grant to study jumping mouse

Tim Mullican

MITCHELL — One man’s interest in rare species of mammals has led to grant funding and future research. Dakota Wesleyan biology professor Tim Mullican has recently been awarded a South Dakota Wildlife Action Plan Grant to conduct a population survey for the Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse in the Black Hills.

The funding award includes both state and federal funding. The federal funds are part of a Congressional appropriation called State Wildlife Grants, which are provided to state wildlife agencies for work on rare species and native habitats. State funding is provided by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks.

The Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse is found only in the Black Hills of South Dakota and northeast Wyoming, and Mullican’s research will track their population and habitat requirements.

“The importance of this project is that if I can show that the species is common in the Black Hills, federal protection via the Endangered Species Act may not be necessary,” Mullican said.

He will begin research this summer and continue in 2011.

“I plan on conducting population surveys along selected streams in the Black Hills of South Dakota and document important habitat requirements,” Mullican said. “Information is also needed for this subspecies to determine if its populations are in contact with populations of other subspecies, thereby allowing interbreeding and gene flow. This will provide baseline population information in case this subspecies is petitioned to be listed as federally threatened by an environmental group as has been done for other subspecies of jumping mice in the western United States.”

Only six proposals were funded this year in South Dakota through this grant, Mullican said. Four of them were for researchers at state universities, one was a private organization (Birds of Prey Northwest), and one other was for two researchers at Sinte Gleske University. Mullican’s grant was awarded in the amount of $36,900.