Northern Short-tailed Shrew

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Northern Short-tailed Shrew[1]
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Soricomorpha Family: Soricidae Genus: Blarina Species: B. brevicauda
Binomial name
Blarina brevicauda (Say, 1823)

The Northern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina brevicauda) is a large shrew found in central and eastern North America from southern Saskatchewan to Atlantic Canada and south to Nebraska and Georgia. At one time, this species and the Southern Short-tailed Shrew, B. carolinensis, were considered to be a single species.

It is slate grey in colour with light underparts. Its body is about 10 cm in length including a 2 cm long tail. It weighs about 21 g, about the same as a house mouse.

This animal is found in damp hardwood and coniferous forests and wet open areas.

It eats insects, earthworms, snails, small rodents and plant material. This red-toothed shrew digs through dense leaf litter and can also tunnel in moist soil. It has scent glands that release a musky secretion which repels some predators; males also use scent to mark their territory.

Mating begins in early spring and may occur until late fall. The female has 2 or 3 litters of 5 to 7 young in a nest in a tunnel or under a fallen log.

Glands in its mouth contain a neurotoxin that allows it to immobilize larger animals such as snakes and birds. If not able to find food within about a two-hour period, these small mammals will attack and eat each other.^[3]

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