SURVEY FOR
ENDANGERED AND THREATENED MAMMALS
AT
GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK
AND
THE EISENHOWER NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR-2006/044

James A. Hart

Pennsylvania Science Office of The Nature Conservancy
Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program
208 Airport Drive Middletown, PA 17057

June 2006
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Northeast Region
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Executive Summary

During May 2004 to October 2005, small mammal surveys were conducted in Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site to determine what federal or state threatened or endangered small mammal species may occur within the two park units. Survey transects consisting of 20 to 25 stations, each containing a single pitfall container and either three or four Museum Special® snaptraps, were established at 10 sites within both park units. The survey sites selected were areas which would likely support populations of the least shrew, Cryptotis parva, a species listed as endangered in Pennsylvania and the only state endangered species known to occur in south central Pennsylvania. This species had formerly been captured in the Eisenhower National Historic Site in 1999 during surveys conducted by the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program under funding from the Pennsylvania Game Commission. It is currently believed that the least shrew, a medium-sized insectivore that ranged throughout much of Pennsylvania historically, is currently restricted to the Piedmont Province of Pennsylvania. Over the course of 2,650 trap-nights of effort (number of traps multiplied by the total number of nights traps were set), 515 specimens of eight species of small mammals were collected including a single specimen of the least shrew. A single specimen of the pygmy shrew (Sorex hoyi), a species very rarely encountered in Pennsylvania, was also collected although this species is not currently listed as either threatened or endangered in Pennsylvania. The information gathered during the latest research will be used to better define the boundaries of the Least Shrew Important Mammal Area as defined by the Important Mammal Areas (IMA) Project of the Mammal Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey. Future research funded by the State Wildlife Grants program will be directed at defining habitat variables within the landscape of the IMA that are important in sustaining populations of the least shrew.

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