So, a trip to the labs of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History positively identified our little shrew as a masked shrew. You can only positively ID the pygmy shrew by a cranial examination. The small mammal expert was gracious and generous with her time, and she was impressively knowledgeable- we learned a great deal and we are so very thankful for her hospitality. I think now we have a much better idea of what we are looking for, although now we are desirous of a dissecting microscope. It was a bit disappointing to find that it was not a pygmy shrew. One should be up to snuff on their species of special concern- there are several species that are so similar to their more common cousins and only close inspection can determine which it is for sure. For instance, there is the pygmy shrew which looks so similar to the masked shrew except for their teeth and there is also the smooth and rough green snakes, where only the rough is a species of special concern. The spotted salamander is another example, where the yellow spotted is rather common but the blue spotted one is endangered.