Tennessee’s least shrew records are sparse: just 29 iNaturalist observations statewide, and only one names a specific site, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That’s typical for this species. It spends most of its life under leaf litter and thick grass, rarely exposed where someone would photograph it. Nearly all the state’s documented sightings fall within the eastern mountains, the one landscape band where enough observers have looked closely enough to find one.
The record count peaks three times: May, June, and November each show the year’s highest monthly tally, 12 sightings apiece, while January through April and late summer sit at two or three. That spring-into-summer-and-fall split hints at seasonal activity or breeding pulses rather than one single peak season. With a sample this small, though, a few extra sightings in any one month can shift the pattern considerably.
Full species profile
