Crossposted from https://lemmy.world/post/51130695
Meet North America's only venomous mammal, the Northern Short-tailed Shrew!
The Northern Short-tailed Shrew is a tiny but fierce predator, subduing its prey with neurotoxic saliva.
Don't worry, unless you are a small mammal, invertebrate, or a small amphibian, the short-tailed shrew's venomous saliva is not medically significant to humans.
Despite their tiny size, these little hunters have a huge appetite and need to eat up to half their body weight in food a day to keep up with their metabolism.
Not exactly the kind of animal you'd expect to be venomous!
To save you a wikipedia search:
The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew contains a kallikrein-like protease, used to paralyze and subdue its prey. The toxin is strong enough to kill small animals, up to sizes somewhat larger than the shrew itself, and results in painful bites to humans who attempt to handle the shrew. The venomous saliva is secreted from submaxillary glands, through a duct which opens at the base of the lower incisors, where the saliva flows along the groove formed by the two incisors, and into the prey. The toxin is very similar in structure to the one produced by the Mexican beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum) which independently developed its toxin from the same precursor protein.
For you true shrew-ophiles, a relatively fun article on soricidin and blarina toxin, 2 poisons found so far in the shrew venom, a little on how they work, the people that discovered the compounds, and potential pharmaceutical benefits. With a read!
Relax keyboard warrior. They're indoor cats, never gone outside a day in their life. They keep the critters out of our kitchen for us.
Why do you have wildlife in your kitchen? /s
Shrews don't seem like the kind of animal that would usually raid kitchens, WTF is going on in your home?
I haven't seen the shrews in the kitchen, so I'm not sure they're coming in through there. The mice are definitely raiding the kitchen though. It's a farmhouse from 1900 with a dirt crawlspace under the kitchen. All sorts of critters find their way in. Bats, mice, shrews, and chipmunks all come in. If I corner them before the cats do I let them back outside.
Are you some kind of fucked up Disney princess?
That's hilarious. Just a part of living in an old house surrounded by forest and farmland. Have to get used to sharing your space with various bugs and critters.