The
least shrew is a small shrew with a cinnamon brown back, gray
stomach and short tail. Parents are two thirds of an inch long
and their babies are as small as a dime. A least shrew's life
span is usually less than a year. It lives in grasslands, pastures,
open woodlands, and marshy forest habitats. Shrews must eat 60%
to 100% of it's body weight daily. It eats centipedes, millipedes,
spiders, slugs, snails, earth worms, grasshoppers, beetles and
crickets. Predators of the least shrew include hawks, owls, snakes,
and small carnivores. The shrew tastes so bad that many other
animals wlll not eat it.
Both
parents take care of the babies and share the same nest. Babies
are born, weaned and on their own in three weeks. The babies
are the same size as adults at one month.
Least shrews are nocturnal, sleeping in the day and coming out
at night. Nests are burrowed out of leaves, or dirt which they
line with leaves or grass. It is not endangered in Ohio.
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