Behavior
Blarina brevicauda is a semi-fossorial animal meaning that it spends the majority of its time underground . The shrews use their front feet to dig tunnels underground for shelter that often will resemble a honeycomb complex . Despite living underground, they have been known to climb trees and other structures in the short bouts of time spent on the surface . Other shrews spend more time above ground than does the northern short-tailed shrew, which prefers to tunnel along below ground, through the leaf litter, or at the snow/ground interface. Bouts of frenzied activity, lasting about five minutes, are followed by longer periods of resting, with the total active time amounting to only 16% of a 24-hour day. This animal is capable of digging at a rate of 2.5 cm/min, in-between resting.
The shrews live in underground nests that are spherical in shape. These nests are often lined with the fur of meadow voles . The shrew constructs a nest up to 20 cm (8 in) in diameter underground or underneath a log. This nest is kept clean, with wastes deposited outside the nest in a latrine area. Other parts of the burrow system are used for food storage.
B. brevicauda has a high resting metabolic rate with their activity level is tied to the weather . The animals are most active on cloudy days as opposed to rainy or sunny days . The northern short-tailed shrew is widely considered solitary and unsocial which is likely due to its territorial nature . Pairs of shrews introduced to a cage simultaneously coexisted for less than four months before one killed the other, and a new shrew placed in a cage containing an already established shrew is killed within a few hours.
Another interesting aspect of B. brevicauda behaviour is their use of echolocation. The eyesight of the northern short-tailed shrew is particularly poor and they must accordingly rely on other sensory methods to succeed . The animals have strong olfactory senses and are able to use echolocation . They use echolocation for exploration of their environment and tunnel building .
Read more about this topic: Northern Short-tailed Shrew
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