Food of the Southern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina carolinensis) on Cumberland Island, Georgia

Abstract

The main foods of 73 Blarina carolinensis (southern short-tailed shrews) taken during 2003 and 2004 on Cumberland Island, GA, were the introduced terrestrial amphipod, Talitroides topitotum (Amphipoda, 21.8% volume), larval beetles (Coleoptera, 12.4%), centipedes (Chilopoda, 11.8%), earthworms (Annelida, 9.1%), moth larvae (Lepidoptera, 8.6%), and spiders (Araneae, 7.4%). The primary foods identified in this study were similar to results from a study in South Carolina, except that amphipods, T. topitotum, comprised 21.8% of the Georgia food, but did not occur in the South Carolina sample, and subterranean fungi Endogonaceae made up 16.8% of the South Carolina food, but only 3.8% in Georgia. The importance of amphipods in the diet in coastal Georgia was probably due to the great abundance of these amphipods in the study area. Talitroides topitotum is a terrestrial amphipod of Indo-Pacific origin and this is apparently the first report of this species from Georgia. There was little seasonal variation among the primary foods, but centipedes and ants were eaten most heavily in spring, annelids and spiders in summer, and fungi in winter.