Venomous Mammal!!

So to start, this takes place in Pennsylvania!

I was at work (I work in a Pet Store that has a dog grooming salon) and I spot a little critter scurrying around the floor, the dog I was grooming started going bonkers so I had to try to catch this little thing.  Assuming at this point it was a mouse.

SOOO I manage to pop a bowl down over it, not wanted to deal with a rodent bite, and do the old "slide a magazine under it" trick, and drop it down into a sterilite tub for relocation purposes.  Once it's in there, I can clearly see it's NOT a mouse!

Not being super familiar with wild small fuzzies, I assume it's a mole or something.  But my nerdy side wanted to know... "what kind of mole" so HELLO GOOGLE!  Turns out... Not a mole.  SOO what the heck is it!  A Vole?  Googled... Nope not a vole.  after searching PA's small mammal database I FINALLY find a match.

Northern Short-Tailed Shrew.  AND IT'S VENOMOUS!  Wow!  A little more reading uncovered that these guys can starve to death if they dont eat every 3 hours.  I can't leave to release this critter someplace safe for another 5 hours.  Well shoot.  SOOO I carry myself over to our reptile dept and buy some waxworms (google says they are insectivorous and highly active) so I figured for the time being, a fatty grub would be a good choice.  I dump some in there, and the little guy eats 4 of them right away.  

Fast forward, time to clock out!  So I take my little visitor over to a local park, I read they enjoy forested areas with lots of cover, so I took the chance to take a BUNCH of pictures, and then released him at the edge of a wooded area with a nearby lake.  

The end.   

Here are a couple pics!




and after release!

That is the cutest fricken fuzzball I've ever seen.  

I see you moved, hope the trip was safe.  Can't wait to see pics more Pa species.

I agree with Focal look at those little tiny eyes wow....I want one lol

LOL maybe I should have kept it! haha!

Jaded_Heart wrote:

LOL maybe I should have kept it!  haha!

Haha you should of!
It's so freakin cute!

So cute!!!! I worked with shrews a few years ago and they were the meanest freakin things ever!!!!!!

I caught an eastern mole the other day outside of my house, I should've taken a pic but I didn't. He was the coolest thing ever and I thought about keeping him, but it says they usually die from stress in a few hours

Short-Tailed Shrew are neat critters, but they sure have a strong pungent odor.

did you tame it?