Once upon a time there was a taxonomy war waged between two armed camps: the Lumpers and the Splitters. That war is history now, long over. The Splitters won and the Lumpers lost, big time.
For the uninitiated, Lumpers were the taxonomists who believed most animals and plants should be classified as members of a few well-defined species. They lost. The victorious Splitters are those who believe every individual organism is a species unto itself.
At first glance, it’s difficult to see how mild mannered, obsequious and bespectacled academics puttering around labs and peering into dissection scopes could be accused of warfare. The assertion seems a trifle hyperbolic for mixed company. But it was a war, with territorial conquest, mass destruction, casualties of combatants and non-combatants alike, and plenty of collateral damage.
One of the bloodiest battles was over a common rodent. The Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius) is a cute little furball distinguished by a long tapering tail, large hind feet, small front feet, and a propensity to hop erratically through the grass when disturbed. Sometimes called a kangaroo mouse, Z. hudsonius is native and common to Asia and North America, found from the Atlantic coast to the Great Plains, in the Southwest, in the Pacific Northwest, and northward to the arctic tree-line of Alaska and Canada, frequenting hayfields and wheat farms as well as native grasslands. Billions of the little critters live in perfect harmony with graziers and agriculturalists across two continents. They have the widest known distribution of mice in the subfamily Zapodinae.
That was before the Splitters weaponized the cowering wee beasties. Today there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of “recognized” species, sub-species, sub-subs, and Distinct Population Segments (DPS’s), including but not limited to: Z. trinotatus orarius, Z. burti, Z. hudsonicus, Z. hudsonicus acadicus,· Z. hudsonius (Jumping Mouse), Z. hudsonius acadicus, Z. hudsonius alascensis (Alaska Jumping Mouse), Z. hudsonius alscensis, Z. hudsonius americanus, Z. hudsonius campestris, Z. hudsonius canadensis, Z. hudsonius hardyi, Z. hudsonius hodsonius, Z. hudsonius intermedius, Z. hudsonius ladas, Z. hudsonius luteus (Meadow Jumping Mouse), Z. hudsonius pallidus, Z. hudsonius preblei (Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse), Z. hudsonius tenellus, Z. insignis, Z. orarius, Z. princeps (Pacific Jumping Mouse), Z. princeps chrysogenys, Z. princeps cinereus, Z. princeps curtatus, Z. princeps idahoensis, Z. princeps kootenayensis, Z. princeps kootenayonsis, Z. princeps kootnayensis, Z. princeps luteus, Z. princeps major, Z. princeps minor, Z. princeps oreganus, Z. princeps oregonus (Big Jumping Mouse), Z. princeps pacificus, Z. princeps palatinus, and Z. princeps princeps (Western Jumping Mouse).
Is there any significant difference between these subspecies? Short answer: no. Dr. Matthew Cronin, PhD., Professor of Animal Genetics, Univ. Alaska Fairbanks, wrote in Cronin, M. A. 2007. The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse: subjective subspecies, advocacy and management. Correspondence, Animal Conservation 10 (2007) 159–161: