Kentucky holds 19 documented southern short-tailed shrew records, all of them concentrated in the far-western corner of the state.
Where two short-tailed shrews meet
Most of Kentucky is short-tailed shrew country, but the widespread species across the state is actually a close relative, the northern short-tailed shrew. The southern short-tailed shrew reaches only the northern tip of its own range here, in the Mississippi and Ohio River bottomlands of the Jackson Purchase, around Land Between the Lakes and the Clarks River bottoms, where the two species overlap.
A tunneling hunter of the bottomland floor
This shrew tunnels through leaf litter and loose soil hunting insects, worms, snails, and other small invertebrates, work suited to the soft, moisture-holding ground of Kentucky’s western river bottoms. Its underground habits mean most confirmed records come from trapping surveys rather than chance encounters, since almost nothing about this shrew’s daily routine happens where a person would notice it.
Status in Kentucky
The southern short-tailed shrew is native to Kentucky, and NatureServe ranks it S5, secure. Its Kentucky range is a narrow footnote to a much larger southeastern range, limited here to the low, wet bottomland corner where the state borders the Mississippi River system.
