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Ranges of the 45 wild mammals occurring in southwestern Minnesota are discussed and documented. Eight other species that either formerly occurred there or might, but have not yet been discovered, are also discussed. Seven species are recorded from southwestern Minnesota for the first time: Scalopus aquaticus, Myotis keenii, Laslonycteris noctivagans, Marmota monax, Spermophilus franklinii, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, and Rattus norvegicus. Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci. Vol. 79 (1-2), 1976. The mammalian fauna of southwestern Minnesota is poorly known. Few published reports have dealt with mammals from this part of the Minnesota prairie lands (most mammal research conducted in the state is carried out in the northern forests). The several accounts of the mammals of Minnesota (Herrick, 1892; Surber, 1932; Swanson, Surber, and Roberts, 1945; Gunderson and Beer, 1953) have been largely based on specimens in the collection of the Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota; a collection poor in specimens from southwestern Minnesota. During the senior author's three year tenure at Southwest State University, Marshall, he was in charge of building up a representative vertebrate collection for class use and to serve as a beginning of a proposed natural history museum (SMSU). The junior author was his chief assistant and conducted a mammal survey of Redwood County. The present report summarizes information gathered in these endeavors as well as specimens in the Bell Museum (UM); The United States National Museum of Natural History (USNM); Morgan School of Biological Science, University of Kentucky (UK); personal collection, Carl H. Ernst (CHE) and records in the literature (the publication of Gunderson and Beer is abbreviated G&B, 1953). The report includes the area bordered outside by Traverse, Steavens, Pope, and Stearns counties on the north and Wright, McLeod, Sibley, Nicollet, Blue Earth, and Fairbault counties |
