CBS4 report on Preble's mouse omitted scientific panel's conclusions

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

During a CBS4 News at 6 p.m. report on a congressional field hearing about the Preble's mouse, co-anchor Jim Benemann reported that the “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to make a decision soon on protecting the Preble's mouse,” which some hearing participants claim is not a distinct subspecies and no longer should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. But Benemann did not inform viewers that a USFWS-commissioned panel of scientific experts recently concluded the mouse should retain its classification as a distinct subspecies.

During a September 19 CBS4 News at 6 p.m. report on a congressional field hearing initiated by U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Fort Morgan), co-anchor Jim Benemann reported that Wyoming attorney general Pat Crank (D) “claims there is no such thing as the Preble's mouse.” Crank's statement echoed claims by hearing participants, who have alleged that the Preble's mouse is not a distinct subspecies and that it no longer should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. But despite noting that the “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS] is expected to make a decision soon on protecting the Preble's mouse,” Benemann did not inform viewers that a USFWS-commissioned panel of scientific experts recently concluded the mouse should retain its classification as a distinct subspecies.

Reporting on the September 18 hearing, which was billed as “Abuses of the Endangered Species Act: the so-called Preble's meadow jumping mouse,” Benemann told viewers, “Critics say protecting the mouse's habitat is hampering development projects.” Benemann added, “Among the most vocal critics at that hearing was Wyoming's attorney general, Pat Crank. He claims there is no such thing as the Preble's mouse. Crank compared it to the mythical Wyoming jackalope -- a jackrabbit with horns like an antelope.”

In its September 19 coverage of the hearing, The Denver Post reported that “Most of those who testified before the committee ... were in favor of removing the mouse from the list.” Noting Crank's “compar[ing] the mouse to the mythical Western jackalope, a hoax that places antelope horns on jackrabbits,” the Post further quoted Crank as saying, “I will tell you from everything I've read and everything I've studied, there is no such thing as a Preble's meadow jumping mouse.”

The Post report did not make clear what Crank had “read” or “studied,” but as the Rocky Mountain News noted September 6, biologist and former Denver Museum of Nature & Science curator Rob Roy Ramey published a paper in 2005 concluding, in the News' words, “that the Colorado-dwelling Preble's mouse is nearly identical to other meadow jumping mice and doesn't deserve the special protections it enjoys as a 'threatened' subspecies under the Endangered Species Act.”

As Colorado Media Matters has noted (here and here), however, Dr. Tim King, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in West Virginia, subsequently published a separate study refuting Ramey's findings. Following King's study, the USFWS commissioned the Oregon-based Sustainable Ecosystems Institute (SEI) to “organize an independent scientific review panel to analyze, assess, and weight the reasons why the data, findings, and conclusions of King et al. differ from the data, findings, and conclusions of Ramey et al.” In a July 20 letter conveying its findings, SEI stated: “In the case of the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse ... the panel unanimously conclude that the weight of evidence currently clearly supports retention of the subspecies as a valid taxon.”

As the USFWS pointed out when it originally contemplated a recovery process for the mouse -- initiated in response to significant declines observed in its population -- the Preble's was “first identified in 1895 [and] inhabits wet meadows and riparian habitats along the eastern edge of the Colorado Front Range below 7,400 feet in elevation and similar habitats in southeastern Wyoming.” Its scientific name is Zapus hudsonius preblei.

From the September 19 broadcast of CBS4 News at 6 p.m.:

JIM BENEMANN: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to make a decision soon on protecting the Preble's mouse. The mouse is currently protected under the Endangered Species Act, and it was the focus of a congressional field hearing in Greeley yesterday. Critics say protecting the mouse's habitat is hampering development projects. Among the most vocal critics at that hearing was Wyoming's attorney general, Pat Crank. He claims there is no such thing as the Preble's mouse. Crank compared it to the mythical Wyoming jackalope -- a jackrabbit with horns like an antelope. (laughing) It's mythical? What?

ED GREENE (meteorologist): (laughing) Yeah.

MOLLY HUGHES (co-anchor): (laughing) A lot of debate about that.