biology

Southern short-tailed shrew

Southern short-tailed shrew is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Southern short-tailed shrew rather than just read about it. In short: The southern short-tailed shrew (Blarina carolinensis) is a gray, short-tailed shrew that inhabits the eastern United States. Description The southern short-tailed shrew is the smallest shrew in its genus, measuring 7 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) in total length, and weighing less than 14 g (0.5 oz).

Key takeaways

Southern short-tailed shrew belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Southern short-tailed shrew to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Southern short-tailed shrew from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The southern short-tailed shrew (Blarina carolinensis) is a gray, short-tailed shrew that inhabits the eastern United States.

Description The southern short-tailed shrew is the smallest shrew in its genus, measuring 7 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) in total length, and weighing less than 14 g (0.5 oz). It has a comparatively heavy body, with short limbs and a thick neck, a long, pointed snout and ears that are nearly concealed by its soft, dense fur. As its name indicates, the hairy tail is relatively short, measuring 1.2 to 2.5 cm (0.5 to 1.0 in). The feet are adapted for digging, with five toes ending in sharp, curved claws. The fur is slate gray, being paler on the underparts.

Distribution and habitat The southern short-tailed shrew is found in the southeastern United States, from southern Virginia to eastern Texas, to central Oklahoma, and in the Mississippi valley as far as southern Illinois. Within this region, it is found primarily in pine forests. However, these range from dry to wet and even swampy habitats, as well as disturbed forests and abandoned agricultural land. There are two recognized subspecies:

B. c. carolinensis – southern Virginia to northern Florida, and west to eastern Mississippi, southern Illinois, northeastern Texas, and central Oklahoma. B. c. minima – eastern Texas, Louisiana, and the Mississippi valley to eastern Arkansas and far western Kentucky Fossils of the species are known from the Pleistocene, during which time they may have spread as far north as South Dakota.

Biology and behavior The southern short-tailed shrew's diet consists of insects, annelids, hypogeous fungi, slugs and snails, centipedes, and spiders. Known predators include snakes, hawks, owls, and foxes. The saliva is venomous and is injected into the wounds of its prey by the teeth. Its venom is strong enough to kill mice, but is not lethal to humans, though it causes severe pain. The short-tailed shrew has a high metabolism and eats about half its body weight in a day. It navigates and locates prey by echolocation. The southern short-tailed shrew is a social animal; it has been known to share its burrow systems with several individuals. The male and female live together during the prebreeding season. The burrows are built in two layers, one near the surface, and a deeper one joined below it. The burrows are often built below logs, which can be penetrated and honeycombed if the log is rotten.

Reproduction The breeding season lasts from March to November, and females have two or three litters per year. Each litter consists of two to six young. The young are reared in nests of grasses and leaves at the end of a tunnel reaching about 30 cm (12 in) below the ground, or in rotten logs.

Predation In Florida, southern short-tailed shrews may be eaten by some growth stage of invasive snakes such as Burmese pythons, reticulated pythons, Central African rock pythons, Southern African rock pythons, boa constrictors, yellow anacondas, Bolivian anacondas, dark-spotted anacondas, and green anacondas.

References

External links Mammals of Texas

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Southern short-tailed shrew

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Southern short-tailed shrew claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Southern short-tailed shrew before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Southern short-tailed shrew ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Southern short-tailed shrew

In research: Southern short-tailed shrew appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Southern short-tailed shrew in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Southern short-tailed shrew is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Blarina, Fauna of the Eastern United States, IUCN Red List least concern species, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Southern short-tailed shrew outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Southern short-tailed shrew in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Southern short-tailed shrew means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Southern short-tailed shrew out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Southern short-tailed shrew in simple terms?

The southern short-tailed shrew (Blarina carolinensis) is a gray, short-tailed shrew that inhabits the eastern United States. Description The southern short-tailed shrew is the smallest shrew in its genus, measuring 7 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) in total length, and weighing less than 14 g (0.5 oz).

Why does Southern short-tailed shrew matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Southern short-tailed shrew?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Southern short-tailed shrew.