Oldest mouse

The oldest mouse is Patrick Stewart (USA, b. 14 July 2013) who is 9 years 180 days old, as verified at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in San Diego, California, USA, on 10 January 2023.

Patrick Stewart, also known as Male 36 is a Pacific pocket mouse, an endangered species that is the smallest mice in North America. They get their name from pouches in their cheeks, used to carry food and nesting materials, and are found in costal scrublands in Southern California.

Endemic only to coastal scrublands, dunes and rivers within about two miles of the ocean, the endangered Pacific pocket mouse’s range once stretched from Los Angeles to the Tijuana River Valley. Because of human encroachment and habitat degradation, their numbers dropped sharply after 1932. For 20 years, they were believed to be extinct until a tiny remnant population was rediscovered in 1994 at Dana Point headlands. By then, their range had been reduced to just three small populations, each isolated from one another by long distances and urban barriers.

Continued population declines prompted the establishment of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s conservation breeding program in 2012 to help save the species from extinction. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance carries out breeding, and studies behavior, ecology and stress to best support genetically diverse, healthy, and behaviorally competent mice that are well prepared for reintroduction into the wild.