Florida mammals

Southern Short-tailed Shrew in Florida

Blarina carolinensis

Native to Florida SNR Unranked in Florida

Not listed as nonindigenous in Florida by USGS NAS; native to its Florida 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.

Southern Short-tailed Shrew in Florida, by the numbers

Occasional in Florida 66th most recorded of 116 mammals logged in Florida

1,219 occurrence records
35 with iNaturalist photos
Apr 13, 2026 Last seen in Florida

1,219 total records count every Florida occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the map plots a georeferenced sample of 300; the monthly chart covers the 703 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Southern Short-tailed Shrew in Florida

Most sightings fall in January to February.

703 Florida occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Florida records (table)
MonthRecords
January88
February127
March62
April76
May52
June31
July61
August49
September47
October40
November31
December39

Monthly southern short-tailed shrew occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Florida.

Seasonality

Year-round in Florida, with recorded sightings peaking in January–February.

Occurrence map

Where Southern Short-tailed Shrew has been recorded in Florida

300 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

300 Florida records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Fanning Springs State Park 3
Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge 3
Ordway-Swisher Biological Station 1
Ichetucknee Springs State Park 1
Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area 1
Colt Creek State Park 1

Protected places with the most southern short-tailed 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 Florida

CountyRecords
Marion County 505
Alachua County 223
Indian River County 91
Citrus County 73
Highlands County 62
Leon County 38
Lee County 35
Hillsborough County 24
Putnam County 21
Pinellas County 17
Levy County 13
Miami-Dade County 12
36 other counties 105

The complete county distribution, spread across 48 Florida counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

All 1,203 Florida records for the southern short-tailed shrew come from GBIF survey and museum data; none were posted to iNaturalist. That fits an animal that spends most of its life underground and is rarely seen alive. St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is the only named site tied to a record, and even there it’s just one, so the rest are scattered rather than clustered at any single place.

February produces the highest monthly total, with January close behind, both well ahead of the rest of the year. That pattern is more likely shaped by when trapping surveys happen than by the shrew’s own activity, since an underground animal like this one is almost never observed directly.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

More mammals in Florida in the atlas

Data & sources

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