In an effort to keep rodents from chewing on the S2000 while it's in storage, we've deployed a number of countermeasures: moth balls, D-Con mouse poison, an electronic ultrasonic doodad, and the good, old-fashioned snappy trap.
I went out to the garage to check the traps, and was surprised to find two critters that clearly were not field mice/ voles. A bit of Googling convinced me that the little guys were Blarina brevicauda: the short-tailed shrew. Venomous mammals— how cool is that?!
[…] Shrews are without a doubt one of the most ferocious mammalian predators--as one naturalist put it, "the tigers of the small animal world." But thankfully, due to their small size, their prey consists largely of earthworms, snails, slugs, insects, and other invertebrates. Occasionally they will resort to small amounts of plant material, but the real "beasts" are more likely to take on other small rodents, salamanders, and snakes. To further add to their charm, shrews are one of the few venomous mammals in the world. Their saliva contains a powerful toxin that can cause a painful reaction in some humans, but is more useful in immobilizing its prey. The immobilized prey can be cached alive to serve as a larder of food that will remain fresh for several days. […]Posted by rv at January 5, 2006 11:15 PM to home
When I was a kid our first cat, Rebel, used to occasionally bring home little "presents" that I was sure were not mice. Since they were very small, I thought they might be shrews. The line in the article you linked that mentions that cats don't eat them seems to confirm that they were shrews. Thanks.
Good luck keeping the car safe from the shrew venom!
Aww, I love those little guys. I've actually seen quite a few of them in the wild - when I was weeding in one place for a while and not stomping around, they've come up in the leaf litter around me. I remember seeing some nature film about shrews years ago, I think Mike was with me and quite shocked by it all. We watched one pull out and devour an earthworm several times its size and then eat several other things that tried to fight back. They have a very high metabolism like a hummingbird and have to eat almost constantly. They are the first thing I think of when someone says 'will eat anything that doesn't eat them first.' I remember thinking, we're very lucky they're not bigger or we're not a lot smaller.
Posted by: Dawn at January 6, 2006 02:54 PMWhat about the ROUS's?
Posted by: Jay at January 6, 2006 04:42 PMThis post came to mind yesterday while I was doing chores at the barn. Something small, dark grey and short-tailed ran across the doorway to the tack room. I'm pretty sure it was a shrew. I'm very glad the little "tigers" are too small to attack horses. :)
Posted by: Doona at January 16, 2006 12:27 PMFortunately for Kåppa (sp?), even the world's smallest horse (10 lbs. at birth) could easily dispatch the largest shrew in North America (1 oz.). But how do you think she'd hold up against a shrew caravan?
Posted by: rv at January 18, 2006 11:11 PM