University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History
Volume 9, No. 16, pp. 405-414, 1 fig.
May 20, 1959
Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado
BY
SYDNEY ANDERSON
University of Kansas
Lawrence
1959
University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History
Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch,
Robert W. Wilson
Volume 9, No. 16, pp. 405-414, 1 fig.
Published May 20, 1959
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
PRINTED IN
THE STATE PRINTING PLANT
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1959
27-7472
Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado
BY
SYDNEY ANDERSON
The Grand Mesa of Colorado is a westward extension of themountains of central Colorado, standing more than five thousandfeet above the valleys of the Colorado and the Gunnison rivers.To certain montane mammals the mesa is a peninsula of cool, moist,forest surrounded by inhospitable, hot, dry, barren lowland.
Few mammals previously have been preserved or reported fromthe Grand Mesa. Of the species here reported, Warren (1942, TheMammals of Colorado, Univ. Oklahoma Press) mentioned only fourfrom the counties in which the Grand Mesa is located. Twenty-twospecies are here recorded from the Grand Mesa, and two localitiesbelow the rim of the Mesa on the north slope, on the basis ofspecimens preserved, and five additional species on the basis ofobservations. Many of these species are limited to a montanehabitat or find their optimum conditions there. The known geographicranges of some subspecies are extended westward.
Specimens and notes were obtained by members of a field partyfrom the Museum of Natural History led by Dr. Harrison B. Tordoff.The party, including also R. Gordon Cliffgard, John M. Legler, OlinL. Webb, and Glen E. Woolfenden, was in the area from June 17to July 5, 1954, and obtained all of the specimens listed exceptingthose from 28 miles east of Grand Junction (Sect. 29, T. 11S, R.95W), Mesa County, that were obtained from June 13 to July 2,1956, by Phillip M. Youngman, and those from Land's End Roadthat were obtained on May 13 and 14, and on October 1, 1948, byD. A. Sutton.
Localities designated by numbers in the accounts to follow arelisted in the legend for Figure 1. Localities 1 and 3 lie below therim of the Mesa on the north side. Catalogue numbers are of theMuseum of Natural History of the University of Kansas, unlessnoted otherwise.
Sorex cinereus cinereus Kerr.—Two male (59642-59643) MaskedShrews weighing 4.8 and 4.9 grams were trapped on June 17 atlocality 10, and a nonpregnant female (59644) was trapped on June26 at locality 6. Sorex cinereus seemed to be less abundant on theMesa than Sorex vagrans; more individuals of S. vagrans than ofS. cinereus were trapped on June 17 at locality 10 and on June 26at locality 6, and S. vagrans was trapped at three localities whereno S. cinereus was obtained.
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