Virginia’s occurrence data holds just 26 records of the southern short-tailed shrew, split between iNaturalist photos and GBIF entries, in a state that sits near the northern edge of a range centered on the Deep South and reaching only as far west as eastern Texas.
Moist ground from the dunes to the mountains
This shrew tunnels through leaf litter and moist soil hunting insects, worms, and snails, and Virginia’s confirmed spots bracket the state’s physiographic extremes: the sandy, moisture-holding maritime forest floor of First Landing State Park on the Coastal Plain near Virginia Beach, and the damp mountain forest of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests along the Blue Ridge and Appalachian ridges to the west. Shenandoah National Park’s cooler mountain forest offers the same kind of ground cover further north along that same western range.
Records cluster in spring
Recorded sightings peak in spring, from April into May, and again in November, though this shrew’s underground tunneling habits mean most records come from targeted trapping rather than chance encounters. The pattern likely tracks survey timing as much as anything the shrew itself is doing.
Status in Virginia
NatureServe ranks the southern short-tailed shrew S5, secure, and it’s native to Virginia.
