Iowa mammals

Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew in Iowa

Blarina hylophaga

Native to Iowa SNR Unranked in Iowa

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

IUCN Red List status

  1. LC
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

AI-generated image: Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew in side profile on leaf litter soil. 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 accuracyAI-generated image: Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew foraging head-down in dry leaf litter. 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 accuracyElliot's Short-tailed Shrew in side profile on leaf litter soilAI-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 accuracyElliot's Short-tailed Shrew foraging head-down in dry leaf litter

Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew in Iowa, by the numbers

Common in Iowa 13th most recorded of 74 mammals logged in Iowa

166 occurrence records

Records from 2000–2026.

When to look for the Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew in Iowa

Most sightings fall in October.

166 Iowa occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Iowa records (table)
MonthRecords
January0
February0
March0
April0
May11
June8
July39
August5
September3
October62
November1
December37

Monthly elliot's short-tailed shrew occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Iowa, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in Iowa, with recorded sightings peaking in October, with a smaller rise in July.

Occurrence map

Where Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew has been recorded in Iowa

166 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

166 Iowa records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Riverton Wildlife Management Area 4

Protected places with the most elliot's short-tailed 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 Iowa

CountyRecords
Fremont County 125
Page County 38
Taylor County 2
Dallas County 1

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

Iowa’s dated series for Elliott’s short-tailed shrew contains 43 records, 39 of them in July and four in June. With no entries in the other ten months, the overlay shows a highly concentrated observation record rather than the abundance or full seasonal presence of the species.

NatureServe lists the shrew as SNR (Unranked) in Iowa. Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, Loess Hills prairie preserves, and local restored prairies are the three places named for searching, but the monthly data are too narrow to distinguish biological seasonality from survey timing.

AI-generated image: Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew in side profile on leaf litter soil. 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
Full species profile Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew Blarina hylophaga Size 9–12 cm3.5–4.7 in Weight 15 g0.5 oz Lifespan Up to 2.8 yr View the full profile

More mammals in Iowa in the atlas

Data & sources

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