By: Alexis Southward
For an entire summer season, Georgia Southern Associate Biology Professor J. Michelle Cawthorne took a dive into the world of Short -tailed Shrews.
Short-tailed Shrews, known for their being the largest specie of Shrew and the only Venemous mammal in North America were the topic of Michelle Cawthorne’s PHD research at Bowling Green State University.
“Short-tailed Shrews are very popular mammals in Europe and Russia. They aren’t looked over like they are here in the United States. Spreading my knowledge about how intricate and energetic their lives are could allow for people to have a better understanding appreciation for the species,” said Cawthorne.
Their size and venomous nature were only few characteristics that caught the eye of Cawthorne, but she decided to take a further look into the daily lives of the Short-Tailed Shrew.
When asked why she felt this kind of research was necessary, Cawthorne expressed that small mammals greatly piqued her interest, especially Shrews due to the United States’ ignorance toward them, and that spreading more awareness about shrews would better educate the world on the true complexities of the species.
“Researching things such as this may seem insignificant to some, but I believe that researching and having a better understanding of other species’ beside our own and unknown things around the world in general can give us more motivation to conserve and preserve," said Cawthorne.
Cawthorne’s research was based on examining their eating habits, examining how they nested and how often throughout the day, and exactly how they handle prey and retrieving other food.
Her research was conducted by way of radio telemetry, which is the process of using radio signals to determine location.
With this technology, Cawthorne was able to track specifically three shrews at a time each day to get a glimpse of where the mammals were going, how often, what they did when they reached certain destinations, and how often they came back to their nesting place.
From this experiment, Cawthorne gathered that the short-tailed shrew have fairly defined home range and are active about 80% of the day.
She also solidified that shrews use their venom in order to catch prey, stating that “they must eat more than half their body weight to survive, so the venom makes them a very dangerous predator, contrary to what some may believe due to their size”
While Cawthorne was very grateful to be conducting this research, she was very concerned with an imperative piece of the experiment, which was getting the radio transmitters into the shrews.
“I Was extremely worried because in order to track the shrews, a radio transmitter had to be surgically injected into them, and it saddened me to think about if they would make it or not once we let them back into their habitat,” said Cawthorne.
Another factor Cawthorne believed to be a disadvantage was the time intensity. Due to the shrews very vigorous lifestyle, she had to stay up for long hours to track the actions of the shrews.
When asked what she would do differently or advice she would give someone conducting the same research in the future, Cawthorne stated that she would take full advantage of the new DNA and transmitter technology.
The most rewarding part of the research to Cawthorne was getting past the hurdle of problem solving.
According to Cawthorne, there were many unforeseen obstacles, and her biggest accomplishment was being able to move past them and successfully finish her research.
“I like the problem solving part of science. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and success to know that I was able to persevere," said Cawthorne.