Meet the Northern short-tailed shrew

The Northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) is a small mammal commonly found in the eastern United States and Canada. The Northern short-tailed shrew is gray or brown with small beady eyes and a pointed nose, and it packs a powerful bite. The short tailed shrew is one of the few venomous mammals of the world, and can be found in forests, fields, and oftentimes in backyards locally. These shrews have 32 teeth made for chewing and have to chew to deliver their venomous saliva into their prey. Short-tailed shrews spend most of their lifetime underground or beneath leaf litter. In the winter , the shrews have to eat 40% more food per day just to maintain their body weight. They will often prepare for this earlier in the year by hoarding food supplies of plants, invertebrates and other small animals. This animal is in no way endangered or of any concern, but it serves as an important prey species for owls and a predator for invertebrates. To find out more about the Northern short-tailed shrew, visit: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Blarina_brevicauda/  

This Wildlife Wednesday provided by Zander Hine, Student Board member