We report the capture of a second specimen of Merriam’s shrew (Sorex merriami)from the northwestern comer of Nebraska from dry grassland of sage and rabbitbrush. The first specimen, captured in 1965, is a more eastern record in what today is Sandhills prairie

Druecker, Jay D.

Freeman, Patricia W.

Tvrz, Scott

English

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Mammalogy Papers: University of Nebraska 
State Museum Museum, University of Nebraska State 
December 1993 
Sorex merriami in Nebraska 
Patricia W. Freeman 
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, pfreeman1@unl.edu 
Jay D. Druecker 
Chadron State College 
Scott Tvrz 
Chadron State College 
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Freeman, Patricia W.; Druecker, Jay D.; and Tvrz, Scott, "Sorex merriami in Nebraska" (1993). Mammalogy 
Papers: University of Nebraska State Museum. 5. 
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From:
The Prairie Naturalist 25:4 (December 1993), pp. 291–294.
Published by the Great Plains Natural Science Society; used by permission.
http://www.fhsu.edu/biology/pn/prairienat.htm
291
Sorex merriami in Nebraska
PATRICIA W. FREEMAN, JAY D. DRUECKER, 
and SCOTT TVRZ
University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, NE 68588-0514 (PWF)
Department of Biology, Chadron State College. Chadron, NE 69337 (JDD, ST)
ABSTRACT — We report the capture of a second specimen of Merriam’s shrew from the northwestern 
comer of Nebraska from dry grassland of sage and rabbitbrush. The fi rst specimen, captured in 1965, 
is a more eastern record in what today is Sandhills prairie.
Key words: Sorex merriami, Merriam’s shrew, Nebraska
Merriam’s shrew (Sorex merriami) is rare in Nebraska. It is a member of the 
Great Basin faunal element (Armstrong et al. 1986) and is found in drier habitats 
than most other Sorex (Armstrong and Jones 1971). Stands of sagebrush (Artemisia) 
in eastern Washington, California, Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming have 
produced the greatest number of specimens (Brown 1967,MacCracken et al. 
1985). Merriam’s shrews have been trapped in runways of the sagebrush vole, 
Lemmiscus curtatus, and may be associated with that species.
The fi rst specimen of Merriam’s shrew from Nebraska was found three miles 
south of Rushville in Sheridan County in 1965 (McDaniel 1967). This record 
extended the known range 100 miles east of records in eastern Wyoming. Curi-
ously, this specimen was taken at the lower end of a wet meadow along Rush 
Creek together with three masked shrews (S. cinereus). Although sagebrush was 
listed by McDaniel as being in a drier site next to the capture site, we retrapped 
both wet and dry sites at Rush Creek in June 1989 and were struck by how it 
resembled the Sandhills prairie. Fringed sage (Artemisia frigida) occurred on the 
hilltop east of the wet meadow, but the hill is dominated by grama (Bouteloua) 
and buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides) with patches of sand between the plants. 
Although Rush Creek had no running water in it, there were pools of water with 
cattails. We captured masked shrews as well as jumping mice (Zapus hudsonius) 
and meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) in the wet meadow. The dry hillside 
nearby yielded thirteen-lined ground squirrels (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), 
deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), western harvest mice (Reithrodontomys 
megalotis), and prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), but no Merriam’s shrews.
We captured a second specimen of Merriam’s shrew in June 1989 in a pitfall 
trap with a drift fence 16 miles N and 8 miles W of Harrison in Sioux County. The 
site is about a half mile east of the Wyoming border on land belonging to the Schnurr 
Ranch. The microhabitat is more typical of that described for Merriam’s shrew in 
292                                   Prairie Naturalist 25(4): December 1993
that it was a dry site dominated by sage and rabbitbrush (Chrysothammus). The 
specifi c trap station was on a tongue of land between two converging arroyos. One 
arroyo drained a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) ridge to the west and the other 
drained a sage grassland to the northwest. The slope leading to the pine ridge 
was covered with sagebrush. Plants nearby were big sage (Artemisia tridentata), 
fringed sage, rabbitbrush (Chrysothammus sp.), skunkbrush (Rhus aromatica), 
snakeweed (Gutierrizia sarothrae), needle-and-thread grass (Stipa comata), 
western wheat-grass (Agropyron smithii), and buffalo grass. Other plants in the 
area included sedges (Carex sp.), silver sage (Artemisia ludoviciana), saltgrass 
(Distichlis spicata), and blue grama grass (Boutelona gracilis). In general, the area 
was the eastern edge of a community dominated by sage. At trapping stations east 
of this site, grasses were more dominant and more typical of short-grass prairie.
Features that distinguish Merriam’s shrew from the similarly-sized 
masked shrew are not subtle (Junge and Hoffman 1981). The venter, feet, and 
ventral surface of the tail are buffy white; and the dorsum is a light grey brown. 
Males have well-developed glands on their fl anks that are quite obvious on our 
specimen. This is the fi rst male taken in the state. The skull is broad compared to 
that of masked shrews, both across the rostrum and across the braincase (Fig. A, 
B). The fi rst upper incisor lacks the medial tine, and the condylobasal length is 
15.9 mm. In addition, the third upper unicuspid is greater than the fourth upper 
unicuspid (Fig. 1C). Like other members of the subgenus Sorex, our specimen 
has a well-developed post-mandibular foramen and no pigmented ridges on the 
lingual face of the unicuspids (Junge and Hoffman 1981). External measurements 
were: headand body 86.0mm, tail 35.0 mm, hindfoot 11.0 mm, ear 7.0 mm, and 
weight 3.6 g. Our specimen compared well in cranial and dental features and in 
measurements of the body with the specimen of Merriam’s shrew from Rushville 
that is housed at the University of Kansas. A second specimen of Merriam’s shrew 
further substantiates that the eastern edge of the species occurs in Nebraska. 
Perhaps future work will document the presence of sagebrush voles, a species not 
yet recorded from the state.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Ron Weedon at Chadron State College for botanical assistance, 
Bob Timm at the University of Kansas for loaning us the Rushville specimen, and 
Mark Marcuson for his drawings.
Freeman, Druecker, and Tvrz: Sorex merriami in Nebraska  293
Figure 1. Cranial outlines of the new specimen of Sorex merriami from 
Sioux County, Nebraska (A; UNSM 17036 male) and Sorex cinereus 
(B; UNSM 17035 male). The unicuspid teeth of the new specimen of S. 
merriami can be seen in the lateral view, part C.
294                             Prairie Naturalist 25(4): December 1993 
LITERATURE CITED
Armstrong, D.M., J.R. Choate, and J.K. Jones, Jr. 1986. Distributional patterns of 
mammals in the Plains States. Occas. Pap. Mus. Tex. Tech Univ. 105:1-27. 
Armstrong, D.M., and J.K. Jones, Jr. 1971. Sorex merriomi. Mamm. Species, 2:1-
2. 
Brown, L.N. 1967. Ecological distribution of six species of shrews and comparison 
of sampling methods in the Central Rocky Mountains. J. Mammal. 48:617-
623. 
Junge, J.A., and R.S. Hoffmann. 1981. An annotated key to the long-tailed 
shrews (genus Sorex) of the United States and Canada, with notes on Middle 
American Sorex. Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kans. 94:1-48. 
MacCracken, J.G.. D.W. Uresk, and R.M. Hansen. 1985. Habitat used by shrews 
in southeastern Montana. Northwest Sci. 59:24-27. 
McDaniel, L.L. 1967. Merriam’s shrew in Nebraska. J. Mammal. 48:493.
Received 4 May 1993. Accepted 15 September 1993.


Sorex merriami in Nebraska

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