Abundance and Distribution of Shrews 
in Western South Carolina 
Michael T. Mengak, David C. Guynn, Jr., J. Kenneth 
Edwards, Diane L. Sanders, and Stanlee M. Miller 1 
Department of Forestry , Lehotsky Hall 
and 
1 Department of Biological Sciences, Long Hall, 
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29631. 
ABSTRACT. — New information on distributions of six species of 
shrews in western South Carolina is presented. Blarina carolinensis 
was the most abundant shrew in our sample. Blarina brevicauda was 
collected less often than expected in hardwood forests (P < 0.05). 
Sorex fumeus and S. longirostris were caught more often than expected 
in floodplain habitats (P < 0.01). The first records of Sorex hoyi are 
reported from South Carolina. 
Shrews are often poorly represented in surveys of small mammals, 
and the relative abundance of various species or even their within-state 
distributions are frequently unclear (Golley 1966, Wolfe and Esher 
1981). The southeastern shrew ( Sorex longirostris ) is considered rare in 
the Southeast (French 1980a) and is not known to have a wide distribu- 
tion in South Carolina (Golley 1966, French 1980a). The pygmy shrew 
{Sorex hoyi ) is suspected to occur in South Carolina (Diersing 1980) but 
has never been reported (Golley 1966, Thompson 1982). The least shrew 
{Cryptotis parva) was the least abundant shrew in a Mississippi study 
(Wolfe and Esher 1981). Taxonomic work on the short-tailed shrews 
{Blarina spp.) was reported by French (1981) and Braun and Kennedy 
(1983), but little is known of the habitat requirements of these species 
(see, for example, Wolfe and Esher 1981). Our objective is to update the 
information on the abundance and distribution of shrews in western 
South Carolina. 
From 1981 through 1985, small mammals were collected through- 
out the year from eight counties in the Piedmont and Mountain regions 
of South Carolina. The counties sampled are in the western portion of 
the state, along or near the Georgia border including (proceeding 
approximately from southeast to northwest): Saluda, Edgefield, 
McCormick, Greenwood, Abbeville, Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens. 
Habitats sampled were loblolly pine {Pinus taeda ) stands (0 to 25 years 
old), hardwood forests (30 to 90 years old), and flood plains along first- 
and second-order streams. Pine stands were sampled in all eight coun- 
ties, whereas flood plains and hardwood stands were sampled in the 
three northernmost counties. 
Brimleyana No. 13:63-66, July 1987 
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