North Dakota mammals

Prairie Shrew in North Dakota

Sorex haydeni

Native to North Dakota SNR Unranked in North Dakota

Not listed as nonindigenous in North Dakota by USGS NAS; native to its North Dakota range.

IUCN Red List status

  1. LC
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

AI-generated image: Prairie Shrew foraging in shortgrass prairie ground litter. No public-domain photograph of this species exists. This image was generated with AI from verified reference material and reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy.
AI-generated image No public-domain photograph of this species exists. This image was generated with AI from verified reference material and reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy.Prairie Shrew foraging in shortgrass prairie ground litter

Prairie Shrew in North Dakota, by the numbers

Common in North Dakota 18th most recorded of 92 mammals logged in North Dakota

133 occurrence records

Records from 2000–2026.

133 total records count every North Dakota occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the monthly chart covers the 132 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Prairie Shrew in North Dakota

Most sightings fall in October.

132 North Dakota occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly North Dakota records (table)
MonthRecords
January1
February1
March3
April0
May0
June16
July33
August28
September6
October40
November2
December2

Monthly prairie shrew occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in North Dakota, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in North Dakota, with recorded sightings peaking in October, with a smaller rise in July–August.

Occurrence map

Where Prairie Shrew has been recorded in North Dakota

133 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

133 North Dakota records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Nd State Lands - Surface Ownership 23
North Dakota State Forest Service Land 1

Protected places with the most prairie shrew sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in North Dakota

CountyRecords
Grand Forks County 36
Bottineau County 30
Stutsman County 29
Ransom County 8
Walsh County 8
Divide County 7
Dunn County 5
Morton County 4
McKenzie County 1
Bowman County 1
McLean County 1
McHenry County 1
2 other counties 2

The complete county distribution, spread across 14 North Dakota counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

North Dakota holds one of the stronger prairie shrew records in the upper Midwest. There are 133 reports, led by Grand Forks County with 36, Bottineau with 30, and Stutsman with 29. That spread runs from the Red River Valley up into the drift prairie and across the pothole country. It fits a grassland shrew at home wherever meadow cover holds moisture. By raw record count it sits in the upper tier of the state’s documented mammals. That standing reflects survey effort as much as abundance.

The calendar has a quirk. October, not midsummer, produced the most dated records, with June through August also strong. Shrews get easier to trap as vegetation dies back in fall. The pattern suggests autumn survey work has carried much of the documentation. NatureServe hasn’t assigned the species a state rank. North Dakota’s shrew story is written mostly by these scattered specimens, solid in the east and north, thin west of the Missouri.

Occurrence data from GBIF.

Prairie Shrew in other states

AI-generated image: Prairie Shrew foraging in shortgrass prairie ground litter. No public-domain photograph of this species exists. This image was generated with AI from verified reference material and reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy.
Full species profile Prairie Shrew Sorex haydeni Size 7–10 cm2.8–3.9 in Weight 3–6 g0.1–0.2 oz View the full profile

More mammals in North Dakota in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"