A bounding flash through dense streamside grass is the only glimpse most naturalists ever get of these beautiful mice. Two species occur in Colorado, the western jumping mouse in the mountains and the meadow jumping mouse on the Colorado Piedmont in a triangle connecting Greeley, Fort Collins and Denver. T hese are beautiful, yellowish brown mice with pure white bellies and a prominent buff stripe on the side. The species are difficult to distinguish in the field except by geography. The animals are about 10 inches long, of which more than half is the thin, nearly naked tail.
Weights are about an ounce.
J umping mice live in vegetation near ponds and streams. Willow thickets or grassy aspen forests are prime habitat for the western jumping mouse. The habitat of the meadow jumping mouse probably has been greatly restricted by converting prairie potholes and other wetlands to irrigation reservoirs. Their diet is mostly grass seeds, spiced with occasional insects. Jumping mice are the smallest of our true hibernators.