Additional Records of the Pygmy Shrew, 



Sorex hoyi winnemana Preble (Insectivora: Soricidae), 



in Western North Carolina 



Joshua Laerm 



Museum of Natural History and Institute of Ecology 



University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 



William M. Ford 

 Daniel B. Warnell School of Forest Resources 

 University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 



Daniel C. Weinand 



Museum of Natural History 



University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 



ABSTRACT — Additional records of the pygmy shrew, Sorex hoyi 

 winnemana Preble, are reported from 14 localities in 7 counties 

 of western North Carolina. Results of recent surveys in adjacent 

 regions of Tennessee and Georgia indicate that the species is 

 widely distributed in the extreme southern Appalachian Mountains, 

 including North Carolina, but is nowhere abundant. 



The pygmy shrew, Sorex hoyi winnemana, has been regarded as 

 one of the rarest mammals in the southeastern United States. In 1980 

 (see Diersing 1980, Handley et al. 1980), there were only 17 records 

 known from southern Illinois east to Maryland and south throughout 

 the Appalachian highlands to the Carolinas and Georgia. However, 

 more recently, considerable information on the distribution, abundance, 

 and habitat associations of this species has become available from Indiana 

 (Caldwell et al. 1982, Cudmore and Whitaker 1984), Virginia (Handley 

 et al. 1980, Pagels 1987, Pagels et al. 1992, Mitchell et al. 1993), 

 Kentucky (Caldwell 1980, Caldwell and Bryan 1982), Tennessee (Kennedy 

 et al. 1979, Kennedy and Harvey 1980, Tims et al. 1989, Harvey et al. 

 1991, Harvey et al. 1992, Feldhamer et al. 1993), South Carolina (Mengak 

 et al. 1987), and Georgia (Wharton 1968). This information indicates 

 that this subspecies can be found over a wider range of habitats and 

 geographic area than previously known. Although nowhere abundant, 

 it may be common where it occurs. 



The first North Carolina records of Sorex hoyi were of two individuals 

 collected by A. H. Howell and reported by Jackson (1928) from Bent 

 Creek Experimental Forest in Pisgah National Forest, Buncombe County. 

 Webster (1987) indicated that the Buncombe County specimens were 

 erroneously reported from Transylvania County by Smith et al. (1960), 



Brimleyana 21:91-96, December 1994 91 



