Pygmy Shrew (Sorex hoyi)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      (Assorted Hardwoods (Any Size Class))
      or (Northern Hardwoods (Any Size Class))
      or (Spruce/Fir (Any Size Class))
      or (Hemlock (Any Size Class))
      or (White Pine (Any Size Class))
      or (Mixed Upland Conifer (Any Size Class))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Any Size Class))
      or (Mixed Upland Hardwoods (Any Size Class))
      or (Swamp Hardwoods (Any Size Class))
      or (Any Lowland Conifer (Any Size Class))
      or (Any Lowland Mixed (Any Size Class))
      or Treed Bog
      or Grass
      or Upland Brush
      or Lowland Brush
      or Bog
   containing:
      Dead Down Woody Debris

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

This shrew lives in a bewildering array of sites including deciduous woods, coniferous forests, regenerating clear-cuts, grassy fields, swamps, bogs, and floodplains. Although the type of vegetative cover varies, most pygmy shrews live in moist boreal habitats with extensive ground cover.

Pygmy shrews prey heavily on spiders, caterpillars and grubs, adult beetles, ants, flies, and other insects. Presumably this mammal also attacks snails, slugs, and earthworms, as do most shrews. When invertebrate food is scarce during winter this insectivore adds seeds to its diet.

Habitat: Wet or mixed (wet-dry) habitat or less often in dry areas close to water. Found in damp litter especially near rotted stumps and logs in wooded areas. Prefers grassy openings in coniferous forests but tolerates a variety of habitat conditions. In New Hampshire, this species was more abundant in swamp hardwood than coniferous stands.

Special Habitat Requirements: Moist leafmold near water.

Habitat Preferences: The pygmy shrew is characteristic of the northern coniferous and mixed coniferous and hardwood forests. It has been reported in dry woodlands, thickets, and grassy clearings; in moist alder clumps at the edge of a brook; in partly submerged sphagnum and tall grass; in garbage in winter in Illinois; in sub-climax beech-maple forest with clearings of chokecherry, Viburnum, sedges, and ferns; in leaf litter under hardwood pole timber; in moss mats with low spruce; in heavy spruce and pine at lakeside; in dry deciduous woods; in open woods and rocky areas, under logs, and among roots and stumps; in stands of hemlock, white pine, hardwoods, and poplar-soft maple-jack pine; in runways of southern red-backed voles; in sphagnum, tamarack swamp, heavy lakeside grass, and on dry sand ridges; in bluegrass; in piles of driftwood along a stream; in an alpine bog; and in an old cabin. One pygmy shrew was even captured near noontime as it crossed a dirt road in Montana.

In the Upper Peninsula, Robinson caught 11 pygmy shrews in several of these above listed habitats in the McCormick Experimental Forest in Marquette County. In Gogebic and Ontonagon counties, Dice and Sherman found this shrew in wet hardwood forest and in black spruce bog. Manville caught pygmy shrews in leatherleaf and white cedar swamps. In the Lower Peninsula, Burt captured a female in beech-maple forest at Barnhart Lakes in Presque Isle County. In Roscommon county, Rabe caught 18 first year pygmy shrews in swampy peatland dominated by leatherleaf and bog birch, with sedges, grasses, and meadowsweet interspersed, and Sphagnum forming a thick matting.

Food Habits: Insects probably make up the bulk of the pygmy shrew's diet, which also includes earthworms, spiders, mollusks, and other invertebrates.

Sorex hoyi, generally considered to be rare or very rare, showed no affinity for a particular cover type or size-class. The results of our work suggest that S. hoyi is perhaps more common than is generally believed. Sorex hoyi is reported to occur in many habitats: grassy openings in coniferous forest, marsh/forest interface, boreal forest, beech-maple woodlands, and highly disturbed sites-sandy blowouts, cut-over forests, flooded areas, and even cultivated areas. Such a range of habitats suggests commonness rather than rarity. Many studies use snap traps, to which S. hoyi may react negatively or which may be too large to take this shrew consistently.