I have caught a Northern Short Tailed Shrew

Northern Short-Tailed Shrew

I have caught a shrew. I heard some munching going on in the kitchen and pulled out the oven. There was a small shrew hiding in the corner!! I suspect that this may be offspring from the previous batch we caught. We caught two in the fall, and then heard munching going on the other day, but did not find any. Then today I saw him. Hiding. So I got out a small plastic hamster cage and threw in over the top of him. He was caught, but how do I get the lid on with out letting him run free? I used heavy-weight card stock paper to slip under him and flip the cage to put the lid on, but he half squeezed out of the side. He was squeezed between the paper and the lip of the cage, squeaking! They say that they are supposed to be silent or inaudible, but this is not true!! They are definitely audible. I even heard the two in the first batch conversing one day, under the cupboard. Oh man!! So I used the paper and lid to squeeze him back in and slap on the lid. He is now hanging out in our kitchen, inside the cage, on our stove top. Yuck!!!

• Status: infrequently seen in Arb, most often near dense cover or bird feeders
• Habitat: grasslands, woodlands, forested areas, suburban lawns and gardens
• Generally silent or inaudible
• Length up to 5 inches
• Diet: seeds, fungi, insects, earthworms, other small rodents
• Highly carnivorous, consumes up to three times its weight in food each day

I was mistaken in previous post when I said we had two mice in the house, apparently they weren't even rodent, but rather a member of the Insectivora family, the Northern Short-tailed Shrew.