The arctic shrew sits at the southern edge of its range in Michigan, and the state’s records show exactly where that edge runs. Of 211 reports logged since 2000, nearly all come from the western Upper Peninsula: Iron County alone accounts for 104, with Gogebic County adding 64. That isn’t proof the shrew is absent farther east. Shrews are hard to see and harder to identify, so the pattern of reports mostly tracks where small-mammal surveys and patient observers have worked, and Ottawa National Forest, with 51 records, is the clearest anchor.
The timing of reports is telling too. Records climb from June into a July and August peak, when trappers and summer hikers are most active in the north woods, then taper off by October. The shrew itself doesn’t vanish in winter; it stays active under the snow. NatureServe considers the species secure in Michigan, so the thin county list says more about survey effort than about the animal. Cool, wet ground in the western Upper Peninsula remains the best bet for a new record.
Full species profile
