New Distributional Records for the Star-nosed Mole, 



Condylura cristata (Insectivora: Talpidae), in 



North Carolina, with Comments on its Occurrence 



in the Piedmont Region 



Jeffrey C. Beane 



North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences 



P.O. Box 29555 



Raleigh, North Carolina 27626-0555 



ABSTRACT — The distribution of the star-nosed mole (Condylura 

 cristata) in North Carolina is updated, including specimen-supported 

 records for seven new counties and sight records for several 

 additional counties. The species is locally common in the Mountains, 

 spottily distributed throughout much of the Coastal Plain, and 

 apparently rare to absent in much of the Piedmont. A specimen 

 from just off the Blue Ridge escarpment in western Surry 

 County represents the first Piedmont record supported by a 

 specimen, although there are additional sight records and unverified 

 reports from that region. This mole is sympatric with the state's 

 other two mole species in many areas, but usually occurs in 

 wetter habitats than either. 



INTRODUCTION 



The star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) ranges from eastern 

 Manitoba and Minnesota eastward to Labrador and Nova Scotia, and 

 southeastward along the Atlantic coast to southeastern Georgia (Paradiso 

 1959, Burt and Grossenheider 1976, Petersen and Yates 1980, Hall 

 1981, Yates and Pedersen 1982). In North Carolina, its distribution 

 has frequently been reported as consisting of two distinct popula- 

 tions — one in the Mountains, where the species is locally common, 

 and one in the Coastal Plain, where it is uncommon to rare — with a 

 conspicuous hiatus in the Piedmont (Lee et al. 1982, Webster et al. 

 1985, Lee 1987, Webster 1987). The scarcity of records from the 

 Coastal Plain and complete absence of Piedmont records resulted in 

 the species being recommended for listing as status Undetermined by 

 the Nongame Advisory Committee to the North Carolina Wildlife 

 Resources Commission (Webster 1987), and in 1990 the species was 

 granted protection as a species of Special Concern under the North 

 Carolina Endangered Species Act (G.S. 113-331 to 113-337). 



I here report on the current known distribution of Condylura 

 cristata in North Carolina by providing a list of existing records from 

 the state, and a dot distribution map (Fig. 1) updated from maps 

 provided by Lee et al. (1982) and Webster (1987). 



Brimleyana 22:77-86, June 1995 77 



