Northern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina brevicauda) lives in moist woodland areas across Eastern North America. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Northern Short-tailed Shrew
- The northern short-tailed shrew delivers a venomous bite because its saliva contains a kallikrein-like protease that paralyses prey. This toxin is potent enough to kill animals slightly larger than the shrew itself and can cause painful wounds to anyone who handles it. It is secreted from submaxillary glands at the base of the lower incisors, travelling along a groove formed by the incisors into the victim.
- A northern short-tailed shrew can consume up to three times its own body weight in food each day, a remarkable intake for such a tiny mammal. Because it loses water rapidly, it often stores food to maintain hydration, especially during autumn and winter when prey may be scarce. One study showed that 87 % of captured prey is cached for later use, with only a small fraction eaten immediately or left where killed.
- In productive habitats the northern short-tailed shrew can reach very high local densities, with numbers rarely exceeding 200 individuals per hectare. Typical densities range from five to thirty shrews per hectare, making it one of the most abundant small mammals where it occurs. It is considered probably the most common shrew in the Great Lakes region, contributing to its status as a widespread and abundant species across central and eastern North America.
- The northern short-tailed shrew's day is punctuated by frantic bursts of activity that last about five minutes each, after which it rests for much longer, so that only roughly 16 % of a 24-hour period is spent moving. Between these pauses it can excavate soil at a steady pace of 2.5 cm per minute, allowing it to create tunnels and burrows quickly.
Sources
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At a glance
RangeEastern North America
HabitatMoist woodland areas
DietInsects and worms
About the Northern Short-tailed Shrew
In the damp, hidden recesses of the forest floor, the Northern Short-tailed Shrew darts and weaves with frenzied intensity, its tiny, pointed snout twitching as it navigates a world of leaf litter and shadow. With each fleeting movement, this diminutive creature embodies a potent blend of ferocity and vulnerability, its high metabolism driving it to hunt incessantly for the insects and worms that sustain its rapid-fire existence. As it scurries through the underbrush, the shrew's very presence seems to electrify the air, a testament to the unbridled energy that animates this smallest of predators.
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