Half of Wyoming’s Merriam’s shrew records come from a single county. Lincoln County, in the state’s southwest corner, holds 16 of the 33 reports, with Carbon and Albany contributing most of the rest. The scatter is wide, though: single records reach from Teton County east to Niobrara and northeast to Campbell. That hints at an animal spread thinly across much of the state’s dry basins and foothills rather than packed into one stronghold.
Reports crest in July and August and bump again in October, matching the warm-season fieldwork window more than any behavior of the shrew itself, which stays active through winter.
NatureServe ranks it S3, vulnerable, in Wyoming. With just 33 reports on record statewide, where the species truly concentrates is an open question, and the county tally reflects where mammalogists have worked as much as where the shrew lives.
Full species profile
