North Dakota’s arctic shrew records lean east. Of the 60 reports logged since 2000, Stutsman and Grand Forks counties hold 45 between them, with Ransom, McHenry, and Bottineau adding the rest. Nothing yet ties the species to the badlands country around Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the west, though with an animal this hard to document, a county with no records means very little.
The monthly pattern is more interesting than a simple summer bump. Reports peak in July and August, then rise again in October, a second wave that likely reflects fall small-mammal trapping rather than any change in the shrew’s own behavior. Like other shrews, it stays active all winter beneath the snow. The species sits near the southern edge of its continental range here, which is part of why cool, damp spots in the eastern half of the state, river bottoms and marsh edges included, produce most of the records. NatureServe hasn’t ranked it in North Dakota, so each verified report still carries real weight.
Full species profile
