Northern short-tailed shrew reports bring together Illinois Beach’s lakeshore woods and the shaded ravines at Matthiessen and Starved Rock. Damp leaf litter and dense ground cover link those otherwise different northern Illinois landscapes, giving this small animal places to hunt out of sight.
October stands well above the other months in the reporting pattern, though records occur throughout the year. That may say as much about surveys and detectability as shrew activity, so it isn’t evidence of greater fall abundance.
