Natural History of the Southern Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina carolinensis

The southern short-tailed shrew, Blarina carolinensis, inhabits a broad range of ecological situations in the southeastern United States and, in many areas, is among the two or three most abundant species of small mammals. Nevertheless, its natural history is poorly known and much of what researchers assumed was fairly well understood about this species actually resulted from work on another species (Blarina brevicauda) and may not be correct in all instances. This problem resulted when modem systematic methods revealed that the wideranging and well-studied species known at that time as Blarina brevicauda actually consisted of three species (B. brevicauda, B. carolinensis, and B. hylophaga). The purposes of this investigation were: 1) to review published literature on the natural history of short-tailed shrews and determine which information actually pertains to the southern short-tailed shrew, and 2) to summarize current knowledge about this shrew