Last-Ditch Effort to Save Adorable Mojave Desert Vole Is Finally Working

A tiny vole in the Mojave Desert has been brought back from the brink of extinction thanks to conservation efforts.

The fluffy creature is known as the Amargosa vole, and the small rodents are so highly specialized that they can live only in very specific environments, mostly along a 10-mile stretch of the Amargosa River in California. They have been listed as endangered by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife since 1984.

In a new picture, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found one, and possibly two, vole pups born from parents that were reintroduced to a restored marsh habitat.

"Like multiple species in the Mojave Desert, the habitat where Amargosa voles were found was really limited, and they were rather extremely specialized on rare marsh habitat in the middle of a very dry desert," Janet Foley, vole lead and professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, told Newsweek.

"Then, one of the teeny towns where they were present, Shoshone, was developed a little, the marshes were turned into a habitat, and the voles went extinct there, so they were only found in one other little tiny town," Foley said.

Amargosa voles were assumed to be extinct by the early 1900s but were rediscovered in the 1970s. Foley's research from 2015 showed that the species had an 82 percent chance of becoming extinct within five years without swift intervention.

A large multiple-agency group was formed, consisting of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Amargosa Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy, Shoshone Village, UC Davis, UC Berkeley and the U.S. Geological Survey, Foley said. "And all of these partners are working to restore habitat and the species."

She continued, "We have been restoring habitat, managing water, studying diseases and predators, studying population genetics, translocating animals, monitoring their movement, and we have a captive breeding colony."

The Amargosa vole is not the only species that has been brought back from near extinction by conservation efforts. Wolves have been successfully reintroduced to Isle Royale in Canada, restoring a population that had as few as two members. And the shortnose sturgeon has been successfully protected after huge population declines that resulted from dams.

Protecting species like the Amargosa vole and other species on the edge of extinction is immensely important, according to Foley.

"In their small corner of the world, they are one of the key foods for many different species of predator," she said. "They are an animal ambassador. They're cute and we have had a lot of success in recovering them, so they help people care and know they can make a difference. Their being so specialized in this desert wetland habitat gives us an important opportunity to study their physiology and ecology to understand how animals can live in harsh conditions. And they are an important contributor to the state's biodiversity."

The outlook for the little vole is good, according to Foley, and hopefully they will not be facing near extinction again.

"It turns out they do well in captivity if that is ever needed again. Their population is small but relatively stable, and the fact that we can create habitat for them and have them thrive is huge," she said.