Minnesota’s prairie shrew records hug the state’s western edge, which is exactly where a prairie shrew should be. Clay County leads with 51 reports, followed by Wilkin with 29 and Lac qui Parle with 26. That is a strip along the Red River Valley, with barely a record east of the old forest line. Bluestem Prairie is the most reported single site. It’s one of the largest surviving pieces of native tallgrass in the state, which fits a species tied to grassland that was never plowed.
Reports run strongly to midsummer, peaking in July and August. That’s the season when small-mammal crews work the prairie preserves. As always with occurrence data, the pattern shows where and when people looked, not a population count. Still, the geography is clean enough to trust. The prairie shrew is a western Minnesota animal, apparently secure in the state per NatureServe. The remnant prairies along the Red River corridor are its documented core.
Full species profile
