Wisconsin’s occurrence databases hold 1,039 short-tailed shrew records, one of the higher tallies among mapped mammals in the state, most of them gathered from the thick leaf litter of hardwood forest floors.
Hunting with venom under the leaves
A short-tailed shrew spends nearly its entire life under cover, pushing through leaf litter and shallow surface tunnels in moist woodland floor like Door County’s limestone-based hardwood forest and the glacial hardwoods of Kettle Moraine State Forest. It’s one of the few venomous mammals in North America: its saliva carries a toxin strong enough to subdue insects, earthworms, and even mice, letting a shrew smaller than a house mouse take down prey many times its own size.
A high-metabolism forager on a summer schedule
Wisconsin’s short-tailed shrew records climb through summer and into early fall, when the shrew’s constant need to eat, its metabolism runs so hot it must feed every few hours, keeps it working the leaf litter along wooded corridors like the Ice Age National Scenic Trail and the mixed forest of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.
Status in Wisconsin
NatureServe ranks the short-tailed shrew S5, secure, in Wisconsin, and it’s native to the state. Wherever hardwood or mixed forest keeps a deep layer of leaf litter on the ground, from the Door Peninsula to the Northwoods, this shrew has the cover and prey it needs.
