diff --git a/lib/mpl_toolkits/basemap/__init__.py b/lib/mpl_toolkits/basemap/__init__.py
index a934f4503..25e08eb50 100644
--- a/lib/mpl_toolkits/basemap/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/mpl_toolkits/basemap/__init__.py
@@ -2130,7 +2130,7 @@ def readshapefile(self,shapefile,name,drawbounds=True,zorder=None,
         # open shapefile, read vertices for each object, convert
         # to map projection coordinates (only works for 2D shape types).
         try:
-            shf = Reader(shapefile)
+            shf = Reader(shapefile, encoding=default_encoding)
         except:
             raise IOError('error reading shapefile %s.shp' % shapefile)
         fields = shf.fields