Smoky shrews turn up most often in Ohio’s hillier eastern and southeastern woodlands, the kind of cool, moist forest floor with deep leaf litter and rotting logs that Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Wayne National Forest both offer. With 177 records, this is one of the better-documented shrews on this list, likely because that habitat also draws plenty of hikers and naturalists able to spot one.
Records spike sharply in June and July, with July alone accounting for more than a quarter of all sightings, before tapering off through the fall. Shrews have a fast metabolism that keeps them foraging almost constantly, and that summer window likely reflects both more shrew activity and more people out looking. Ohio’s NatureServe rank is S3, vulnerable, a real conservation designation rather than a measure of how easy the species is to find.
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