Washington’s masked shrew record is heaviest in the state’s northeast corner: of 2,777 records, Stevens County holds 1,371 and Pend Oreille County 1,221, with the Colville National Forest alone contributing 866. Farther west the record thins toward the Cascades and the San Juan Islands, with Chelan County next in line at 148.
A few grams of nonstop appetite
The masked shrew is the most widely distributed shrew in North America, a mouse-sized hunter that must eat nearly its own weight in insects, worms, and other small prey each day to keep its furnace running. It is active around the clock, resting in short bouts between hunts, and favors cool, moist ground under conifer and mixed forest, the kind of country running through the Kaniksu National Forest, the Glacier Peak Wilderness, and North Cascades National Park.
Busy all winter, seen in summer
Masked shrews do not hibernate. They hunt right through the coldest months under the snow, where the leaf-litter layer keeps working even in midwinter. Reports still pile up in May, June, and July, when breeding adults and a flood of new young make the little animals far easier to encounter.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the masked shrew S4, Apparently Secure, in Washington, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
