Research Report #17 — Shrews of Ulster County
For many years scientists and naturalists have been studying and observing the flora and fauna of the Shawangunk Ridge. Foremost among them was Daniel Smiley, for whom Mohonk Preserve’s Daniel Smiley Research Center is named. Dan wrote numerous reports summarizing his observations on various topics. This regularly occurring series will feature some of these reports; some hold tremendous scientific value today and just await an interested researcher to follow up, others showcase a quirky sense of humor or highlight an oddity of nature.
Read the report: “The Shrews of Ulster County.” November, 1957. Daniel Smiley. Originally published in the John Burroughs Natural History Society newsletter, The Chirp.
A note from Paul C. Huth, Director of Research Emeritus: While Daniel Smiley had a keen interest in all the plants and animals of the Northern Shawangunks, probably the two groups that attracted more of his interest from an early age were the birds and mammals. In mammals, Dan was not only interested in species classification, but their distribution and behavior in their natural habitats.
This Research Report is derived from field work conducted by Dan and his close friend and fellow naturalist Fred N. Hough, a resident of the nearby Rondout Valley. Somewhat unknown today was Dan’s interest in the Catskills which came in part from the view of the Catskill Mountains directly across the valley to the west and north of Mohonk and from extensive hiking trips. Many of these hikes were part of the work of the Records Committee of the John Burroughs Natural History Society. This is evidenced in Dan’s article Mountains of the Catskills-A Guide and Record, published in The New York State Conservationist, August-September, 1961. This article was an outcome of extensive mountain hiking in the 1950s where he and Fred were conducting research into the relationship of Catskill Mountain summit Balsam Fir found 3,500 feet and above with the distribution of the rare Bicknell’s Thrush. Many of these hikes included overnight summit camping which also allowed for small mammal trapping and documentation.
Occasionally, sitting quietly in a Mohonk Preserve slope forest or old field, one may be lucky enough to hear a shrew rustling in the the leaves or grass, making nearly inaudible “chirps and squeaks”, that may emerge for a moment in its near constant search for food. One may rarely be observed in an old barn or in the cellar of an old farm house. As Dan reports in 1957, “we are fortunate in having 6 kinds of shrews in Ulster County.” They are-the Short-tailed Shrew, Masked Shrew, Smoky Shrew, Big-tailed or Long-tailed Shrew, Pigmy Shrew, and Water Shrew. One other, the Small or Short-tailed Shrew, now called the Least Shrew, was not documented from Ulster County at that time.
Dan noted that the most wide spread species of shrew is the Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina brevicaudata, which he called “ubiquitous, being found in swamps, on farm fields, and in dry forests”….and, “from the low lands to the summit of Slide Mountain.” Dan considered it “one of the three commonest mammals of Ulster County (the other two being the Deer Mouse and the Meadow Mouse”). It is one of the few mammals to have poisonous saliva!
The Big-tailed or Long-tailed Shrew, also known as the Rock Shrew, Sorex dispar, is found mostly in moist areas with rocks and logs, many times related to evergreen forests. It has, as it’s name implies, a surprisingly long tail of over 2 inches in length. At the time of this summary, Dan documented records on the Shawangunk ridge at Mohonk Lake, near Minnewaska, and at Awosting Lake. We have in collection photographs of their rocky habitat that Dan took in 1931.
The Pigmy Shrew, Sorex hoyi, is considered by some sources, to be “one of the smallest terrestrial mammals on Earth!” At the time of Dan’s writing, there were only two records of the species in the County. None have ever been documented in the Shawangunks.
One record of Smokey Shrew, Sorex fumeus, at Mohonk, occurred in a cellar, where Dan reported, “the number of crickets had been disappearing!”
Dan notes only one record of the Water Shrew, Sorex palustris, from the Catskills, in his Research Report. He was particularly interested in this species since it’s life revolves around water, it’s fur is water proof and as a result it can swim, dive, and even run on the water surface for short distances with feet adapted to take advantage of the waters surface tension. It’s food is made up primarily of aquatic larvae like stoneflies and caddisflies found in ponds and streams.
While Dan did not document any Ulster County records of the “Small Short-tailed Shrew,” or Least Shrew, Cyptotis parva, as it is known today, in his 1957 Research Report, we have one reliable observation made in March 2000 at the top the Trapps in open oak forest where they were seen and heard foraging beneath fallen oak leaves, “creating a rustling noise over a wide area and sounding like rain drops striking dried leaves.” In contrast to other shrew species, this is a sociable species.
Except for the Short-tailed and Masked Shrews which are fairly common, the other five shrew species are much less so or rare. Two species, the Least Shrew and the Pigmy Shrew, are rare in New York State and are considered as Species of Potential Conservation Need (SPCN). The New York Natural Heritage Program has ranked both species as G5, “demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare.” Few records of Pigmy Shrew are known from the eastern Adirondacks, otherwise “little is known” about the extent of the species. All shrews are threatened by various forms of habitat disturbance, which, in their high speed life lasting at most a year to a year and a half, can be highly detrimental to local populations.
This original Research Report first appeared as a “Scientific Supplement” to The Bulletin of the John Burroughs Natural History Society, The Chirp, November, 1957.
Read the report: “The Shrews of Ulster County.” November, 1957. Daniel Smiley. Originally published in the John Burroughs Natural History Society newsletter, The Chirp.
