The North American least shrew is one of the continent’s smallest mammals, an insect-eating hunter that stays hidden under matted grass and leaf litter rather than digging burrows of its own. In Texas its 701 records cluster at Aransas, Padre Island, and Brazoria, three coastal refuges whose mowed margins and dense marsh grass give the shrew the ground cover it depends on to move unseen.
Sightings spike in January and again in November, both cooler months when a hungry, fast-metabolism shrew has to forage more often rather than months when the species is somehow more common; a shrew this small burns through food constantly regardless of season.
NatureServe lists it S4, Apparently Secure, in Texas, and it’s recorded as native across its Gulf Coast and eastern range in the state.
Full species profile
