Alaska’s clearest records for this shrew cluster in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, in the moist conifer forest and brushy stream edges of Southcentral Alaska, the kind of damp, litter-covered ground the species depends on wherever it occurs.
It hunts insects, spiders, worms, and other small invertebrates in leaf litter and soil, probing narrow gaps with a pointed muzzle and occasionally scavenging or taking tiny vertebrates. Like other shrews it has to feed almost constantly to keep up with a fast metabolism, since a long pause without food is dangerous for such a small warm-blooded animal.
Records run heaviest in July and August, with a smaller cluster in November that likely reflects a specific survey or trapping effort rather than a true seasonal pattern. Shrews don’t hibernate, so this species almost certainly stays active under snow and leaf litter through the Alaska winter even when no one is recording it.
Full species profile
