The Masked Shrew, Sorex cinereus (Insectivora: Soricidae), and Red-backed Vole, Clethrionomys gapperi (Rodentia: Muridae), in the Blue Ridge Province of South Carolina JOSHUA LAERM Museum of Natural History and Institute of Ecology University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 ERIC BROWN, MICHAEL A. MENZEL Daniel B. Warnell School of Forest Resources University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 AMANDA WOTJALIK Museum of Natural History University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 WILLIAM MARK FORD Daniel B. Warnell School of Forest Resources University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 AND MARY STRAYER Nongame and Heritage Trust Program, South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department P.O. Box 1806, Clemson, South Carolina 29633 ABSTRACT—The first records of Sorex cinereus Kerr are documented from South Carolina. Pitfall surveys throughout the Blue Ridge Province resulted in captures from two localities in markedly mesic, relict, boreal habitats. Additional records of Clethironomys gapperi (Vigors) were documented including the most southeastern record. Both S. cinereus and C. gapperi are rare in South Carolina, largely because of limited areas of appropriate habitats. The masked shrew, Sorex cinereus Kerr, has the largest range and exhibits the greatest geographic variation of any North American Sorex (Hall 1981, Junge and Hoffmann 1981, van Zyll de Jong and Kirkland 1989). It ranges throughout the transcontinental coniferous forests from the Canadian Arctic south to the extreme northern por- tions of the United States with significant extensions south into the Brimleyana 22:15-21, June 1995 15 16 Joshua Laerm, et al. montane forests of the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. In the southeastern United States including Virginia and West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia, S. cinereus is restricted primarily to high elevation montane communities of the Appalachian Highlands (van Zyll de Jong and Kirkland 1989). To date, however, there have been no records from South Carolina (Golley 1966, Mengak et al. 1987). Previously, the southernmost records of S. cinereus have been reported from Georgia based upon three specimens reported by Wharton (1968) from Beech Creek near its confluence with the Talulla River, Towns County, at an elevation of 807 m. More recently, Ford et al. (In press) have reported S. cinereus from numerous, widely scattered localities throughout the Blue Ridge Province of Georgia, including localities in close proximity to the South Carolina state line. Similarly, S. cinereus has been reported from several Blue Ridge Province counties in North Carolina (Polk, Henderson, Transylvania, Jackson, Macon, and Clay) which are contiguous to South Carolina (Lee et al. 1982 and unpublished University of Georgia, Museum of Natural History records). Because S. cinereus is known to occur in immediately adjacent areas of Georgia and North Carolina and because seemingly appropriate areas of high elevation habitat exist in the Blue Ridge Province of South Carolina, we surveyed the moun- tainous portions of Oconee, Pickens, and Greenville counties specifi- cally for S. cinereus. METHODS From 23 January to 1 May 1994 pitfall trap surveys were conducted throughout the Blue Ridge Province of extreme northwest- ern South Carolina including, from east to west, portions of Greenville, Pickens, and Oconee counties. We totalled 14,000 trap nights at 17 individual sites. At each site twenty, 32-ounce, plastic containers (14-cm lip diameter and 17-cm depth) were placed below ground level adjacent to forest floor debris including stumps, fallen logs, rocks, etc, for a minimum of 60 days. Approximately 0.14L of preservative was placed in the bottom of each pitfall. General habitat features, including dominant overstory and understory vegetation, aspect, and approximate stand age, of each site were recorded and elevations estimated from topographic maps. Traps were checked on a biweekly basis. Specimens were preserved in alcohol for subsequent reproductive and gut content analysis. Standard body measurements were taken, and skulls were prepared for confirmation of identifica- Masked Shrew and Red-backed Vole 17 tion. All specimens were reposited in the mammal collections of the University of Georgia Museum of Natural History. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION We recovered 15 S. cinereus at two of 17 Blue Ridge Province sites. Both S. cinereus localities were in the northwestern portion of Oconee County. Seven individuals were recovered from the grounds of the Walhala Fish Hatchery in a hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) streamside community which grades upslope into a yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), mixed oak (Quercus spp.), hickory (Carya spp.), and white pine (Pinus strobus) community. Elevation was approximately 760 m. The second S. cinereus locality (eight captures) was approximately 1.3 km east of the Walhala Fish Hatchery site in a moderate to mesic mixed oak and yellow poplar hardwood community at approximately 800 m. Sorex cinereus was the dominant small mammal recovered in the Walhala Fish Hatchery site. Fifteen small mammals were recov- ered in 1,960 trap nights: seven S. cinereus, two S. fumeus, one Sorex hoyi, one Blarina brevicauda, two Peromyscus maniculatus, and one Clethrionomys gapperi. The recovery of S. cinereus was fairly evenly distributed over the trapping period with one or two captured during each sampling period. At the second site, also with 1,960 trap nights, 12 S. fumeus, four S. hoyi, two Peromyscus leucopus, one P. maniculatus, two Blarina brevicauda, and one Clethrionomys gapperi were captured in addition to the eight S. cinereus. Here all the cinereus were captured between 20 March and 3 April; six of which were taken in a single pitfall trap beneath a large, heavily rotted log. The breadth and intensity of our collection efforts indicate a restricted distribution of S. cinereus in South Carolina. Sorex cinereus is regarded as having a boreomontane distribution (Junge and Hoffman 1981). In the southern Appalachians it has been documented by Odum (1949), Johnston (1967), Gentry et al. (1968), Linzey and Linzey (1971), Whitaker et al. (1975), and Lee et al. (1982) in west- ern North Carolina; Conaway and Howell (1953), Smith et al. (1974), and Harvey et al. (1991, 1992), in the mountainous regions of eastern Tennessee; and Pagels and Tate (1976), Pagels and Handley (1989), Pagels (1991), Kalko and Handley (1993), and Pagels et al. (1994) in southwestern Virginia. It has not been recorded from elevations be- low 610 m in southwestern Virginia (Pagels and Handley 1989) or North Carolina (Linzey and Linzey 1971, Lee et al. 1982). Similarly, 18 Joshua Laerm, et al. in Georgia, S. cinereus is restricted to high elevation (790-1,370 m) in markedly mesic habitats with northern affinities (Ford et al. 1994). Kirkland (1985, 1991) indicated that soricids, in general, are most diverse in regions characterized by cool moist forests, possibly by supporting an abundant, stable, and diverse soil invertebrate fauna upon which shrews depend. Pagels et al. (1994) have shown that the presence of S. cinereus was significantly correlated with soil moisture holding capacity and total understory vegetation, and that habitat features that promote shaded, moist habitats were particularly important in relict, boreal forest habitats throughout the southern Appalachians. Although considerable areas of the Blue Ridge Province in South Carolina meet or exceed the minimum elevations at which S. cinereus is found elsewhere in the southern Appalachians, boreomontane habitats are limited there. At the southern limit of the Appalachian Mountains, much of the mountain habitat in South Carolina is charac- terized by south-facing aspects with more xeric, mixed oak and pine communities. Similar xeric south-facing or ridgeline habitats in Geor- gia yielded few, if any, S. cinereus in recent studies (Ford et al. 1994). In Georgia we encountered S. cinereus primarily at very high elevations (over 1200 m) or in rich, moist, streamside communities dominated by hemlock and rhododendron on the Rabun Bald Massif. West of the Little Tennessee River in Georgia, S. cinereus is restricted to higher (over 1000 m) elevations, and then they only occur in restricted habitats with marked northern affinities such as those described by Wharton (1968). Our collection site at the Walhala Fish Hatchery is located in a relatively narrow, steep-walled gorge of the East Fork of the Chat- tooga River. Wharton (1977) noted that similar streamside forest communities on the Georgia side of the Chattooga were kept cool and moist due to complete shading by the hemlock overstory and rhododendron shrub layer as well as by steep-walled gorges. He noted that such areas were refugia of more typical northern forest commu- nities. The Walhala Fish Hatchery, and its associated upslope north- ern aspect cove hardwood habitat, might represent a limited finger or refugia in South Carolina for boreal species such as S. cinereus. The region of the Walhala Fish Hatchery is one of the few sites in South Carolina that has yielded other small mammals with a typical boreal distribution including Clethrionomys gapperi (Pivorun et al. 1984) and Peromyscus maniculatus. Other high elevation sites in the Blue Ridge Province including Sassafrass Mountain, Jones Gap at Caesar's Head State Park, Saluda Mountain and Hogback Mountain were trapped but yielded no S. cinereus. Peromyscus maniculatus has Masked Shrew and Red-backed Vole 19 been recorded at many of these sites (Golley 1966), and we recovered several specimens at most of these localities. However, Clethriono- mys gapperi was not reported beyond the Walhalla Fish Hatchery site until we recovered one in the region of Sassafrass Mountain (Pickens County, US Hwy 178, 7.4 m north of State Hwy 11). This is most southeastern record for the species and, like S. cinereus, it apparently has a very limited distribution in South Carolina. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS—We appreciate the field assistance of numerous persons including E. Mitchell, J. Kimbrell, N. Lautenschlager, B. Smith, L. Grassman, and S. Chalmers. Collecting activities were conducted under South Carolina Permit #0016-94. We also thank biologists with the Walhala Fish Hatchery, Sumpter National Forest, and Caesar's Head State Park for permission to conduct surveys on United States Forest Service and South Carolina State Park lands. LITERATURE CITED Conaway, C. H., and J. C. Howell. 1953. Observations on the mammals of Johnston and Carter counties, Tennessee and Avery County, Virginia. 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