Wikimedia Commons/Bureau of Land Management
Wilfred Bowen’s Discovery of Alabama’s Endangered Beach Mouse
In 1968, a mouse changed how we think about Gulf Coast wildlife. Wilfred Bowen, a sharp-eyed zoologist at the Florida Museum, spent years studying tiny beach mice.
He bred over 3,400 of them to track how their fur colors passed down through families.
His work paid off when he found the Alabama beach mouse had its own look – gray fur, no nose stripe, and fewer black-tipped hairs than its cousins…