The Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse

What animal is one of the few mammals on earth that can drink salt water? The Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse of course! This tiny rodent or mouse lives in the salt marshes around the southern end of the San Francisco Bay. It feeds on the picklebush plant and is able to drink and survive on salt water. The Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse is sometimes known as the "Red Bellied Harvest Mouse," because its belly is the color of cinnamon. This mouse is a very good swimmer!

The Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse is endangered with extinction because of development that is happening in the area where it lives. Roads, houses and other buildings are being developed or built near the salt marshes. This is destroying the picklebush plant that the mouse needs to eat and, it's also ruining the marsh where the mouse needs to live.