Oklahoma mammals

Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew in Oklahoma

Blarina hylophaga

Native to Oklahoma SNR Unranked in Oklahoma

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

IUCN Red List status

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

AI-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 Oklahoma, by the numbers

Occasional in Oklahoma 75th most recorded of 120 mammals logged in Oklahoma

111 occurrence records

9 with iNaturalist photos

Apr 23, 2024 Last seen in Oklahoma

Records from 2000–2026.

111 total records count every Oklahoma occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the monthly chart covers the 109 records with a full observation date.

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

Most sightings fall in May.

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

Monthly Oklahoma records (table)

Month	Records
January	3
February	2
March	9
April	12
May	33
June	6
July	5
August	7
September	3
October	6
November	10
December	13

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

Seasonality

Year-round in Oklahoma, with recorded sightings peaking in May.

Occurrence map

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

111 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

111 Oklahoma records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monument	iNaturalist records
CLO Lands	8
Oliver's Woods	2
Atoka Wildlife Management Area	1
Lake Thunderbird State Park	1

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 Oklahoma

County	Records
Osage County	19
Cherokee County	18
Cleveland County	17
Murray County	13
Atoka County	9
Creek County	5
Logan County	5
Payne County	4
Oklahoma County	3
Comanche County	3
Johnston County	2
Marshall County	2
9 other counties	11

The complete county distribution, spread across 21 Oklahoma counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Elliot’s short-tailed shrews carry no NatureServe state rank in Oklahoma, SNR unranked, and the record leans overwhelmingly on GBIF specimen data (104 of the combined records) over iNaturalist (9), since a shrew this small and secretive is far more likely to turn up in a trap than in a photograph.

May alone accounts for 19 of the year’s 29 monthly-tallied sightings, roughly two-thirds of the entire total, an extraordinarily concentrated spring spike that plausibly reflects a single major trapping survey rather than any real seasonal explosion in the shrew’s own activity, since the record goes completely silent from July through April.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

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 Oklahoma 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"