There was a dead thing curled up very sadly on my driveway this morning, which hurt my delicate little heart, but the odd thing is - I’ve never seen one of these before in my life!
At first glance I thought it was a baby bird, because it had an odd beaky sort of snout, but then I realized it was some rodentine sort of small mammal. It was no longer than my index finger, I think, and had plush grey fur, almost bluish gray like some cats have. Tiny little feet tucked in. Small eyes. I didn’t notice the presence or absence of a tail, and I hate to go back and look at it now that the ants have probably gotten at it. I assumed it was a baby at the time, but thinking on it it may well have been an adult of a very small species.
I live in Columbia, SC, right inside the city limits in an area of single family housing with big yards - suburban landscape. We haven’t really got much variety in wildlife - a lot of squirrels, some possums (one particularly cocky big fat one, shudder), the occaisional rabbit. I saw a raccoon once, but only once and that was pretty out of the ordinary. There are deer nearby, but that’s about it for mammals. Could it be a shrew or a vole or something? Maybe a baby mole? It didn’t seem to have that “mole” look, but then it was dead and I couldn’t really see how big its eyes were except that they weren’t -big-.
I’m just intrigued, because obviously we’ve got some kind of animal I was previously unaware of, and I’ve lived in this house for ten years. I suppose it might have been killed by the stray cats the neighbor feeds, although it didn’t have marks of a cat kill - it still had its head, for one thing. What could have killed it? If it’s an underground thing, what was its corpse doing in my driveway? If it was killed by an animal, why wasn’t it eaten or at least mangled in some way? It was sad, it was awfully cute.
It didn’t really look like either, although the snout was more moley (but not entirely, it really looked more like a beak). It didn’t have the mole paddly paws, but would they be noticeable on a baby?
Yes, the creature was curled up on its side with its feet tucked up. So you couldn’t see how long its legs were but it was clear that all four feet were quite small. The front ones didn’t seem to be larger or different from the back ones (like how a mole’s seem to face out).
Given the gray fur, and that the tail was not very evident, my best guess among the species that range in South Carolina would be the Least ShrewCryptotis parva. It actually does have a short tail. Other species are possibilities, but sound less likely.
In the picture, does it have a different coloration on it’s snout, or is that just the picture? My dead thing had a dark snout, but otherwise that definately looks closer than the other links in this thread. I love how he’s chowing down on half an earthworm. The fur isn’t quite right, though - are there different colorations and fur types for this sort of animal, or does the fur change with age? Mine looked both sleeker and plusher.
BTW, according to eNature.com, the Least Shrew feeds, among other things, on the internal organs of grasshoppers and crickets. I’m sure that’s it’s way of saying “it dosen’t eat the exoskeleton”, but isn’t that delightfully gruesome? It also enters bee hives to feed on the tasty brood within!
But since they live in burrows and only come out at night, I’ll probably never see one alive.
The snout is usually pink in life (it’s bare skin, not furry) but if the animal were dead it could well be darkish. (Decomposition sets in rapidly in such a tiny animal.) The fur also can look different depending on the condition of the animal and other factors.
Here is a gallery of different images of the same species; you can see how they vary.
That’s it! That’s so it! The sleeker, thinner one. It has poisonous spit!!
Wow, I’m gonna keep an eye out for Least Shrews now. Except, I have a terrier with free reign in the back yard. So I suspect the poor thing was not native to our property.
If he’s still there in the morning I guess I’ll bite the bullet and move him with the shovel. It’s so sad to see a little dead animal that nothing even bothered to eat.
I am from Spartanburg, South Carolina and I belive it is a Least Shrew. I kicked one off my walk this morning. My cat brings me these as “gifts.” Sometimes they have heads, sometimes they are all chewed up.
I don’t think the harpsichord or the fork got mine - he seemed, er, very peaceful.
So what all my reading about the widdle Least Shrew has not taught me is, how can I make my front yard (the dogless part of my house) more hospitable to these neat little creatures? I love the idea that there’s been this Nature, red in tooth and claw life living itself out there with me totally oblivious to it and it pretty much oblivious to me except when my car might run it over. Lizards getting scared out of their tails, grasshoppers getting their guts sucked out, everything and sundry getting hit with the poison slobber! How cool is that?!
I wish they’d eat my cockroaches, but the roaches are bigger than the shrews.
Probably not a problem for shrews - they will kill and eat animals larger than themselves, including mice. Gram for gram, they are one of the most ferocious predators on the planet. (Though even a shrew probably wouldn’t be able to eat a larger animal entirely at one sitting.)
The more undergrowth and leaf litter you have in your yard, the more you will make it hospitable to the creatures a shrew feeds on. However, that could get you in trouble with the local homeowner’s association.
If it can take a praying mantis, I should think a cockroach would be no problem. Mantises are another “gram for gram, one of the most ferocious predators” candidates. It’s impressive if anything near their size can tackle one.
I see you have yet to be introduced to my cockroaches.
I should think they’d be quite fond of my mother’s overgrown planting beds and our untrimmed magnolia, then. I hope to see fierce shrew samurai hordes lurking in my undergrowth some day.
