Preble’s shrew is among the rarest and least-known mammals in Colorado. Open occurrence databases hold only 27 Colorado records for it, every one from specimen collection rather than a photograph, and they come from just a handful of localities.
A tiny shrew at the edge of what we know
The smallest member of its genus in North America, Preble’s shrew turns up in sagebrush, shrubland, and the fringes of coniferous forest and wet meadow, usually where those habitats meet. Colorado’s confirmed records sit in the central mountains, in Summit and Pitkin counties, but the species is so seldom trapped that its true range in the state is still being worked out. Each new capture adds meaningfully to a very short list.
Present in winter, caught in summer
What faint seasonal signal the records carry falls in late summer, when survey work is possible, not because the shrew itself is seasonal. Like its relatives it stays active year-round and does not hibernate, hunting small invertebrates through every month beneath cover and snow.
Status in Colorado
NatureServe ranks Preble’s shrew S1, critically imperiled, in Colorado, the highest level of state conservation concern short of loss from the state. Much of that ranking reflects how few animals have ever been documented here. It is native to Colorado.
Full species profile
