Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina brevicauda)

Physical Description

Habitat

Tracks and Sign

Walk Trail Width : 3.2 - 4.1 (1 1/4 - 1 5/8 in)
Trot Trail Width : 2.5 - 3.5 cm (1 - 1 3/8 in)

Short-tailed Shrew trails tend to look like long erratic lines, wavy and coiling, not straight when they are trotting or walking along the surface of the snow. They may bound, but not often and it seems only in deep snow. The trail in the images above wasn’t very straight for very long, a good indicator for Shrew.

All Shrews have 5 toes on the front foot, and 5 toes on the back.

Another thing to remember, just to complicate things is that Shrews are different widths and lengths. Short-tails are on the larger ends of the Shrew spectrum in Ontario, with only the Northern Water Shrew (Sorex palustris) being very slightly larger. Luckily, S. palustris is just a little too North to be near me (Rice Lake is around the most Southerly they have been documented on inaturalist).
As for the smaller Shrews, my neighbours include Smokey Shrew (Sorex fumeus) and Masked Shrew (Sorex cinereus). Sometimes their trails are around 2 cm, but not usually larger.

Scat

When eating worms and slugs, Mark Elbroch describes Short-tailed Shrew scat as soft squirts, but when they are eating tougher things, scats appear tubular with tapered ends. Scats are found along Shrew trails and runs and also found deposited at burrow entrances.

Reproduction

Lifespan/Longevity

Behavior

Communication and Perception

Food Habits

Predation

Ecosystem Roles

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Conservation Status

Other Comments

Contributors

References