Missouri sits at the southern edge of the prairie shrew’s range, and the state’s 78 records draw an odd two-cluster picture. Worth County near the Iowa line holds 28, and Lewis County on the Mississippi side holds 26, with little in between. Whether those are two real strongholds or the footprints of two active trappers is hard to tell from records alone. Both counties hold the unplowed grass and meadow edge the species favors.
The oddity in the Missouri record is the timing. January produced the most dated reports of any month, with smaller rises in April and early summer. Shrews stay active under the snow all winter, so a cold-month record is plausible biology. But a January lead usually means at least one winter survey did much of the documenting. NatureServe hasn’t ranked the species in Missouri, a sign of how little attention it’s received this far south. Treat the current picture as a sketch, not a finished portrait.
Full species profile
