Kirsten Schmitten is a Master Interpreter, and owner of the locally-based company All Things Wild. She loves the questions folks ask, especially when they stump her. Contact the The Jasper Local to ask your Wild Question.
Dear Wild Guide,
I saw an elk and a bear and lots of sheep. But what I really want to know is what is the smallest animal in Jasper?
Thanks,
Shrimpy Sam (I am 5 years old)
Dear Shrimpy,
Smallest you ask? You would think after 30 years of guiding, I would know most of the 53 species of mammals in Jasper. But your question sent me on a big learning curve, and I think you’re going to love what I discovered about the puniest animal in the park. It even has a superpower.
The Smallest Animal in Jasper award goes to… the American pygmy shrew (Sorex hoyi). Weighing in at 3 grams, it is about the same weight as a penny (ask an old person what that is), or the heft of three potato chips. Its wee body, including its long nose, is only the length of your pinkie finger. So, you might be surprised such a small figure has a monstrous appetite.
I would say pygmy shrews have an oversized metabolism. They need to eat three times their weight each day. Nearly blind, shrews use their sensitive whiskers, senses of smell, and touch, to hunt small insects, spiders, larvae, and earthworms. It is a non-stop mission to shove any protein they can fit into their pointy faces; they are eating machines.
But when winter hits, the cold temperatures make it is nearly impossible to fuel their bodies. That is when their superpower kicks in. These miniature mammals actively SHRINK themselves. Their spines get shorter as they absorb bone mass. Key calorie-consuming organs, like their liver and kidneys, get smaller. One study found they even reduced their calorie-consuming brains by 20 to 30 per cent in the winter. Now that is smart.
This seems like a huge effort to go through for such a short life. On average, these little guys live only a year. They give birth once in their lifetime, to four to seven babies. When newly born, the babies travel in what is known as a caravan, by latching onto each other’s furry bums. That is something I’d like to witness.
In all my years living in the Rockies, I am not sure I have seen a pygmy shrew. Sometimes I’ve seen little grey things run across my path, but they were too fast and too small for me to identify. I often assume I was seeing field mice. But shrews are not mice; we can’t go lumping them in with rodents. They are in a cool order called Eulipotyphla (meaning truly fat and blind), which they share with hedgehogs and moles.
Although they are tiny, they now hold a mighty big curiosity to me. From now on I am going to get shrewd about looking out for our smallest mammal in the Rockies.
Kirsten Schmitten // https://info@thejasperlocal.com
