American water shrew occurrence in Arizona traces a single disjunct outpost: a cold, spring-fed stream population in the White Mountains, isolated from the species’ main range across the northern half of the continent. With a percentile in the bottom third of the state’s mammal record, it is genuinely one of the harder Arizona mammals to document.
Every logged sighting falls between July and September, which likely tracks summer stream access and survey timing rather than the shrew disappearing the rest of the year; a semi-aquatic insectivore that hunts underwater in mountain headwaters is easy to miss even where it persists.
Full species profile
