page_title: Venomous mammal
section_title: Insectivores
hierarchical_section_title: Venomous mammal / Examples / Insectivores
caption_attribution_description: Blarina brevicauda -- Grande musaraigne -- Northern Short-tailed Shrew. Longueur / Length: approx. 10 cm (4 inches). North American mammal (order Insectivora). Mammifère nord-américain (ordre des insectivores). Bas-Saint-Laurent -- Province de Québec -- Canada
context_page_description: Venomous mammals are animals of the class Mammalia that produce venom, which they use to kill or disable prey, to defend themselves from predators or conspecifics or in agonistic encounters. Venomous mammals are now rare. Mammalian venoms form a heterogeneous group with different compositions and modes of action, from three orders of mammals, Eulipotyphla, Monotremata, and Chiroptera. It has been proposed that some members of a fourth order, Primates, are venomous. To explain the rarity of venom delivery in Mammalia, Mark Dufton of the University of Strathclyde has suggested that modern mammalian predators do not need venom because they are able to kill quickly with their teeth or claws, whereas venom, no matter how sophisticated, requires time to disable prey.
  In spite of the rarity of venom among extant mammals, venom may be an ancestral feature among mammals, as venomous spurs akin to those of the modern platypus are found in most non-therian Mammaliaformes groups.
  Venom is much more common among other vertebrates; there are many more species of venomous reptiles and fish. Some birds are poisonous to eat or touch.
context_section_description: With the exception of vampire bats, insectivores are the only mammals so far observed to produce toxic saliva. 
  These species have significantly enlarged and granular submaxillary salivary glands from which the toxic saliva is produced.
  The Cuban solenodon (Solenodon cubanus) and Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) look similar to large shrews. They both have venomous bites; the venom is delivered from modified salivary glands via grooves in their second lower incisors. It was reported that death was frequent among Hispaniolan solenodons kept together in the same enclosure, with bite marks on their feet being the only observable cause. Such use in competition may be a secondary aspect of the insectivore venom.
  The northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda), Mediterranean water shrew (Neomys anomalus), and Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens) are capable of delivering a venomous bite. Other American short-tailed shrews: the southern short-tailed shrew (Blarina carolinensis), Elliot's short-tailed shrew (Blarina hylophaga), and Everglades short-tailed shrew (Blarina peninsulae) and the Transcaucasian water shrew (Neomys teres) possibly also have a venomous bite. Shrews cache various prey in a comatose state, including earthworms, insects, snails, and to a lesser extent, small mammals such as voles and mice. This behaviour is an adaption to winter. In this context, the shrew venom acts as a tool to sustain a living hoard, thus ensuring food supply when capturing prey is difficult. This is especially important considering the high metabolic rate of shrews. Arguments against this suggest that the venom is used as a tool to hunt larger prey. Insectivores have an enhanced dependence on vertebrate food material, which is larger and more dangerous than their power to weight ratio would allow, thus requiring an extra asset to overcome these difficulties. Extant shrews do not have specialized venom delivery apparatus. Their teeth do not have channels, but a concavity on the first incisors may collect and transmit saliva from the submaxillary ducts, which open near the base of these teeth.
  The European mole (Talpa europaea), and possibly other species of mole, have toxins in their saliva that can paralyze earthworms, allowing the moles to store them alive for later consumption.
caption: The northern short-tailed shrew is one of several venomous shrews.
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