Recorded habitats for this species include mature parts of oak-elm floodplain forest, woody ravines, beneath decaying logs in wooded floodplain communities, grassy pastures adjacent to woody areas, savanna-like areas, and grassy areas strewn with rocks (Caire et al. 1989, Baumgardner et al. 1992); also mottes of live oak trees on sandy soils, grassy vegetation with an overstorey of loblolly pine, and grassy vegetation several metres from some post oak trees (Davis and Schmidly 1994). It may burrow extensively under leaf litter, logs, and deeply into the soil, but ground cover is not required if soils afford easy burrowing (Davis and Schmidly 1994).

It breeds from February to October in Arkansas. Gestation is about three weeks. The litter size is five to eight; and there are multiple litters per year (Caire et al. 1989). Most will live no more than two years. They will eat various invertebrates as well as small vertebrates and some plant material (Caire et al. 1989). Larger prey is subdued by toxic saliva.

This species occurs in northeastern Colorado, southern Nebraska, southwestern Iowa, and Missouri south through Kansas and Oklahoma to central and coastal Texas (known from three counties; Davis and Schmidly, The Mammals of Texas, in press), Arkansas, and Louisiana in the United States (Hall 1981; Hutterer, in Wilson and Reeder 1993; Baumgardner et al. 1992).

This species occurs in protected areas throughout its range.