Colorado holds 19 documented records of the American pygmy shrew, one of the smallest mammals on the continent, every one of them from two neighboring counties on the northern Front Range.
Wet meadows of the northern high country
The records split between Boulder and Larimer counties, in the wet high-country meadows and streamside cover around Rocky Mountain National Park and the Indian Peaks. That’s a good match for what this shrew needs: moss, leaf litter, and grass roots that stay damp and cool even at elevation. With so few records, the picture is a sketch of where the shrew has been caught rather than its full Colorado range.
A predator too small to save energy for later
At just a few grams, this shrew burns through its energy reserves fast, so it hunts in short bursts around the clock instead of picking one time of day. It works beneath moss and leaf litter for insects, spiders, and other small prey, relying on a long snout and touch more than eyesight, which is part of why it’s so rarely seen even where it’s genuinely present.
Status in Colorado
Colorado’s database treats this shrew as native across its mapped range in the state, and no NatureServe rank has been logged for it here.
Full species profile
