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Description

Shrews are the smallest species in their genus. Their total length ranges from 75 to 105 millimeters. The tail length ranges from 17 to 30 millimeters. The range in weight is 15 to 30 grams. Southern Short Tailed Shrews have small eyes, a long, highly moveable nose, and small ears. It can be brown but mostly metallic black with pink feet and a pink nose.

The Southern Short Tailed Shrews habitat

Shrews are most commonly found in moist, well drained habitats containing woody vegetation. The well-drained soil allows shrews to burrow underground and construct nests. Nests are composed of the shredded grass, roots and dry leaves.

Southern Short Tailed Shrews range

Shrews inhabit the southeastern corner of the United States. Populations can be found as far northern as southern Illinois and South-central Virginia, and as far south as central Florida.

Southern Short Tailed Shrews diet

Southern Short Tailed Shrews are primarily carnivores, though some vegetable matter may be taken. Their diet is composed to mainly soil invertebrates. Shrews feed throughout the day, but are most active at night and in early morning.

Southern Short Tailed Shrews life cycle

The average life span of a shrew is 2 years or less. They breed February through September. Two to three liters and 4 to 8 young. Gestation period is usually between 17 to 21 days. When a shrew is born it is blind and weighs only 1 gram. They are also pink colored and helpless. A baby shrews eyes usually don't develop until the 22nd day of being born. They are born in small nests of grasses and dry vegetation. Young feed of their mothers milk for 2 to 3 weeks.

Some important factors that a shrew needs to live

Shrews need food to live and they need safe habitats. Shrews need food because if they had no food then they would starve to death. Shrews need safe habitats because if they didn't have safe habitats then they would get eaten by a predator. Shrews have many predators, a few of the are: milk snake, black snake, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk, sparrow hawk, broad winged hawk, barn owl, short-eared owl, barred owl, horned owl, long-eared owl, screech owl, fox, weasel, and skunk.

6 interesting facts about a Southern Short Tailed Shrew

1. A shrew has poison produced by the submaxillary glands, which is present in the saliva and may be introduced into wounds made by the teeth. Injections of 6 mg of an extract prepared from the submaxillary gland are strong enough to kill mice. There is little likelihood the venom would have any serious effect on humans.

2. Shrews eat birds and other mammals, twice the size of them selves

3. Shrews have 15 or more predators

4. The Short Tailed Shrew is the smallest mammal of there genus.

5. Humans should control where we put houses because it can have a negative impact on the Short Tailed Shrew population.

6. Southern Short Tailed Shrews are closely related to the Northern Short Tailed Shrew.

Impact humans could have on the shrew

I think that the human impact on shrews is that they should be left a lone. I think this because the shrews don't bother anybody. They should live because they have many predators, and if they had no shrews to eat then there would be a loss in there diet. Also there are tons of types of shrews. In addition shrews don't hurt anyone anyway, except for the poison in their saliva which doesn't hurt very bad. Yet humans should control where we put our houses because it can have a negative impact on the Southern Short Tailed Shrew population.

Description	Habitat	Range	Food	Life Cycle
Survival	Facts	Human Impact	References	Links


The 7 levels of classification
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Mammalia
Order	Insectivora
Family	Soricidae
Genus	Blarina
Species	canolinensis