MANHATTAN — The shrew and its parasites — even 40-year-old preserved ones — are the new indicators of environmental change, according to a Kansas State University researcher.
Andrew Hope, Kansas State University research assistant professor in the Division of Biology, and his colleagues across the U.S. have published ”Shrews and Their Parasites: Small Species Indicate Big Changes” in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2016 Arctic Report Card. The study indicates an expansion in the range of the forest-dwelling masked shrew in Alaska, while the range of its tundra neighbor to the north, the barren ground shrew, constricts and fragments whenever the climate warms.
According to Hope, the pointy-nose, often overlooked small insectivores are good indicators of environmental changes because they are found around the world and share space with large animals. Shrew population shifts can reflect changes in species that are more familiar to people but harder to work with, like caribou and moose, he said. The invasion of the masked shrew into the barren ground shrew’s territory also brings with it parasites and pathogens that can be transmitted among different shrews and possibly to other animals.
Read more at Kansas State University
Image credits: Kansas State University
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