American short-tailed shrew

American short-tailed shrews[1]
Temporal range: Late Pliocene to Recent
Southern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina carolinensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Eulipotyphla
Family: Soricidae
Subfamily: Soricinae
Tribe: Blarinini
Genus: Blarina
Gray, 1838
Species

The genus Blarina is a group of relatively large shrews with relatively short tails found in North America. They have 32 teeth and are in the red-toothed shrew subfamily.

They generally have dark fur and thick feet. The saliva of these animals is toxic and is used to subdue prey.[2]

The list of species is:[1]

Ecoepidemiology

Short-tailed shrews are one of the animal-reservoirs of the agents of Lyme disease and human babesiosis.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Hutterer, R. (2005). Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 269–270. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. Kita M, Okumura Y, Ohdachi SD, Oba Y, Yoshikuni M, Nakamura Y, Kido H, Uemura D. (February 2005). "Purification and characterisation of blarinasin, a new tissue kallikrein-like protease from the short-tailed shrew Blarina brevicauda: comparative studies with blarina toxin". Biological chemistry 386 (2): 177–82. doi:10.1515/BC.2005.022. PMID 15843162.
  3. Telford III, S. R., Mather, T. N., Adler, G. H., & Spielman, A. (1990). Short-tailed shrews as reservoirs of the agents of Lyme disease and human babesiosis. The Journal of parasitology, 681-683 (abstract)


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