The Rock Shrew, Sorex dispar (Insectivora: Soricidae), in 



Georgia with Comments on its Conservation Status in the 



Southern Appalachians 



Joshua Laerm, Charles H. Wharton, 



Museum of Natural History and Institute of Ecology 



University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 



AND 



William Mark Ford 



Westvaco, Timberlands Division, 



Box 577, Rupert, West Virginia 25984 



ABSTRACT — The first state record of Sorex dispar is reported from 

 Georgia in a high elevation cliff and talus mixed-oak community 

 in Rabun County. New records from localities in Macon County, 

 North Carolina, are also reported. The conservation status of the 

 species is uncertain in the southern Appalachians where collection 

 records indicate it to be rare. 



On 29 October 1995 one adult male rock shrew, Sorex dispar 

 Batchelder, was found in a sunken pitfall trap on the north face of 

 Rabun Bald, Rabun County, Georgia, at an elevation of 1,280 m. Pitfalls 

 were 946 cm 3 plastic cups (11-cm lip diameter and 14-cm depth) set 

 flush to the ground adjacent to fallen logs, rocks, stumps, or other 

 forest floor debris. The specimen was captured under a protruding 

 gneiss boulder in a cliff and talus slope at the base of a massive 

 rock face which dominates the north face of Rabun Bald. Standard 

 body measurements were 129, 63, 15 mm. This is the first record 

 of the species from Georgia and represents an extension of its range 

 approximately 50 km south from its nearest reported locality in Jackson 

 County, North Carolina (Webster 1987). 



The Rabun Bald locality is dominated by a chestnut oak (Quercus 

 prinus), northern red oak {Q. rubra), red maple {Acer rubrum), and 

 black birch (Betula lenta) overstory. Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), 

 rosebay rhododendron {Rhododendron maximum), sweet pepper bush 

 {Clethra acuminata), and fetter bush {Leucothoe recurva) dominate 

 the shrub layer. Other small mammals recovered in pitfalls at the 

 locality included Sorex cinereus, S. fumeus, Blarina brevicauda, Peromyscus 

 maniculatus, Microtus pinetorum, and Clethrionomys grapperi. 



We previously collected three S. dispar specimens in Macon County, 

 North Carolina which, owing to the rarity of the species, we report 



Brimleyana 24:1-5, April 1997 



