This is a small, secretive species, and in New Mexico that shows in the numbers: 184 records over 26 years, most tied to wetter ground near Bitter Lake and Bosque del Apache national wildlife refuges and the Rio Grande corridor. Nationally the least shrew ranges through the eastern half of the country and out into the Great Plains, so New Mexico sits at the edge of its range rather than its stronghold, which likely explains the state’s S2, Imperiled, NatureServe rank even though the IUCN lists it as globally secure.
Records cluster in early and late summer, with a sharp gap in August between two separate peaks in July and September. That kind of uneven pattern usually says more about when surveyors were in the field than about the shrew’s actual activity.
Full species profile
