endemic to a single nation

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: (20,000-200,000 square km (about 8000-80,000 square miles)) Central and southern Appalachian Mountains from West Virginia south to North Carolina and Tennessee (Kirkland and Van Deusen 1979, Wilson and Ruff 1999).

Type for Sorex dispar blitchi Schwartz, 1956
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Mammals
Sex/Stage: Male; Adult
Preparation: Skin; Skull
Collector(s): A. Schwartz & E. Blitch
Year Collected: 1955
Locality: Wagon Road Gap, 2 Mi NE, Haywood County, North Carolina, United States, North America

Comments: Most commonly found in boulder piles on steep mountain slopes. This form has been found inhabiting artificial talus created by road-building in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Wilson and Ruff 1999).

Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Comments: The stomachs of six individuals captured in the Great Smoky Mountains contained insects (including a beetle) and spiders (Conaway and Pfitzer 1952).

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: Unknown

Unknown

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable

Rounded Global Status Rank: T3 - Vulnerable

Reasons: Relatively large extent of occurrence with extensive protected areas and few threats argue that this form is not severely threatened, although preference for a restricted habitat type (talus slopes) suggests that only small portions of range are occupied. The subspecies is rarely surveyed and recent population trend data are lacking.

Global Short Term Trend: Unknown

Global Long Term Trend: Unknown

Comments: At least in the 1970s, this form was regularly trapped in appropriate habitat (Kirkland and Van Deusen 1979).

Comments: Principle habitat, talus slopes, probably not threatened by much other than mining.

Global Protection: Several to very many (4 to >40) occurrences appropriately protected and managed

Comments: Many populations protected in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and other protected areas along the southern Appalachian Mountains within the range.

Comments: Subspecies recognized as valid by Hutterer (2005).