Vagrant shrews turn up in Montana wherever damp ground breaks up otherwise dry country: wet meadows, marsh edges, and stream banks near places like Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and the Flathead Lake shoreline. The state’s 1,458 GBIF records make this one of the better-documented small mammals in this group, though the total still comes entirely from GBIF rather than iNaturalist, a pattern typical of a shrew too small and fast for casual photography.
July is by far the busiest month for reports, with 405 records, more than a quarter of the year’s total, tapering through June and August. That’s a summer survey-effort curve tied to when field crews and hikers are out, not a sign the shrew disappears the rest of the year; a metabolism this fast demands near-constant feeding regardless of season. NatureServe rates the species Secure (S5) in Montana, consistent with a shrew that’s genuinely widespread across the wetter margins of the state rather than simply overlooked.
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