Alaska mammals

Barren Ground Shrew in Alaska

Sorex ugyunak

Native to Alaska S5 Secure in Alaska

Not listed as nonindigenous in Alaska by USGS NAS; native to its Alaska range.

IUCN Red List status

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

AI-generated image: Barren Ground Shrew foraging through damp moss and low vegetation. No public-domain photograph of this species exists. This image was generated with AI from verified reference material and reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy — AI-generated image No public-domain photograph of this species exists. This image was generated with AI from verified reference material and reviewed by our editorial team for accuracyBarren Ground Shrew in side profile on wet mossy groundAI-generated image No public-domain photograph of this species exists. This image was generated with AI from verified reference material and reviewed by our editorial team for accuracyBarren Ground Shrew foraging through damp moss and low vegetation

Barren Ground Shrew in Alaska, by the numbers

Occasional in Alaska 46th most recorded of 108 mammals logged in Alaska

308 occurrence records

308 total records count every Alaska occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the map plots a georeferenced sample of 300.

When to look for the Barren Ground Shrew in Alaska

Most sightings fall in August.

308 Alaska occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Alaska records (table)

Month	Records
January	0
February	0
March	2
April	2
May	0
June	8
July	67
August	194
September	30
October	5
November	0
December	0

Monthly barren ground shrew occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Alaska.

Seasonality

Year-round in Alaska, with recorded sightings peaking in August.

Occurrence map

Where Barren Ground Shrew has been recorded in Alaska

300 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

299 Alaska records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monument	iNaturalist records
Gates of the Arctic National Park	67
Noatak National Preserve	38
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve	15
State Tentatively Approved (tad)	14
Gates of the Arctic National Preserve	11
Mollie Beattie Wilderness Area	10
Kobuk Valley National Park	10
Cape Krusenstern National Monument	6

Protected places with the most barren ground shrew sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Alaska

County	Records
North Slope County	171
Northwest Arctic County	101
Nome County	20
Yukon-Koyukuk County	9
Other localities	7

The complete county distribution, spread across 4 Alaska counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

GBIF records, 308 of them and zero from iNaturalist, concentrate in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the North Slope, and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, the wet sedge tundra and grassland this tiny shrew calls home.

Barely three inches long including its tail and weighing about as much as a nickel, this shrew hunts insects and other small invertebrates almost constantly, a pace it needs to fuel a metabolism that runs hot at that size. It doesn’t hibernate, staying active through the Arctic winter under snow cover rather than sleeping it off.

Nearly all records land in July and August. That narrow window says less about when the shrew is actually active and more about when researchers are out trapping small mammals during the Arctic’s brief field season.

Occurrence data from GBIF.

Full species profile Barren Ground Shrew Sorex ugyunak Size 6.9 cm2.7 in Weight 4 g0.1 oz Lifespan Up to 2.5 yr View the full profile

More mammals in Alaska in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"