| These shrews live in deserts, but they seek out moister microhabitats within them, such as brushpiles or fallen logs. They have been found in beehives, and their tiny, golfball-sized nests have been found in dens built by—and sometimes still occupied by—woodrats. Captive individuals ate a variety of insects, including cockroaches, beetles, mealworms, and moths, and also accepted carrion. They would not attack live rodents, or eat salamanders, earthworms, or scorpions. Crawford’s Gray Shrews give birth to litters of 3 to 5 relatively helpless, but rapidly maturing, young, which leave the nest by six weeks of age.
Also known as:
Gray Shrew, Desert Shrew
Length:
Average:
87.6 mm
Range:
77-98 mm
Weight:
Average:
4.3 g
Range:
2.9-6.3 g
References:
Coues, E., 1877. Precursory notes on American insectivorous mammals, with descriptions of new species, p. 651. Bulletin of the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 3:631-653.
Links:
Mammal Species of the World
Click here for The American Society of Mammalogists species account
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