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The Pygmy Shrew

ET Warrior

By ET Warrior
in Yoda’s Swamp

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The thing that amazes me is that pygmy shrews are REAL creatures....lemme find some info on em....

The pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal in North America and the second smallest mammal in the world. At 2.2 g, it weighs less than a dime and is only 7.8 to 9.8 cm long. Like all shrews, it looks like a tiny mouse with a long snout. Its main body is only 5.3 to 6.3 cm long; all the rest is tail. Its dense, soft fur is brown to grey on its back, and pale grey or silvery on its belly. It is one of the rarest mammals in North America. It lives in most of the Canadian forests north of a line from Kingston to Georgian Bay. In the United States, it lives in New England, the Great Lakes Region, Colorado and the southern Appalachians. It lives in deep woods, open and brushy fields, or mossy bogs. It hunts for food among dead leaves, and branches and probably feeds on insects and insect larvae, small earthworms, centipedes, and spiders.

 

Scientists know little about its activities because it is so difficult to observe in its wild habitat. It is like most shrews except smaller. It is extremely active day and night. It eats at least once every three hours. The pygmy shrew eats up to twice its own weight in food every day. The pygmy shrew viciously attacks any other animal it thinks is an enemy, including other pygmy shrews. Experts do not know how it overcomes this dislike long enough to mate.

 

Like other shrews, the pygmy shrew has one or many litters every year. A litter has two to ten blind, pink, and hairless young. The number of births appears to depend on the food supply and numbers of competing shrews in its territory.

 

It is difficult to find this shrew as it leaves very little behind in the way of footprints or droppings. Footprints are often blurred dots. Its burrows are so small they look much like tunnels of larger earthworms.

I cannot find the reference, but i have read that their heartrates are so high that if you startle them they will simply fall over dead.

 

Poor poor pygmy shrews.

 

Edit- AHA! found it...more info on shrews!

One of the smallest of all mammals is the pygmy shrew, a mouselike creature with a head and body length of only 1 1/2 inches (3.8 centimeters) and a 1-inch- (2.5-centimeter-) long tail. All shrews are small, with dense, velvety fur, long tails, and tiny eyes and ears. Their skulls are narrow, and the long, pointed snout overhangs the lower lip. These tiny creatures are extremely nervous and sensitive. Their hearts may beat 1,200 times per minute, and a shrew may die from the shock of a rough touch or a loud noise. Consequently they rarely survive capture.

 

Shrews have been called bloodthirsty, though the label is not entirely accurate because they must eat almost constantly to stay alive. The animal is believed to have a very high metabolic rate and cannot live more than a few hours without food--usually eating more than its own body weight in a day. In the absence of normal prey it will turn to cannibalism to survive. Ordinarily shrews feed on invertebrates, and they help to control harmful insects. Some also eat plant material or carrion. They have sharp teeth, and a number of species have toxic saliva for stunning prey. (This saliva is painful, but not deadly, to humans.) Few mammals will eat shrews because many species have glands on their flanks that emit an unpleasant scent. However, birds of prey and snakes will feed on them.

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