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Why do short-tailed shrews store snails for later?
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shrew
Water shrew (Neomys anomalus).
Short-tailed shrews (genus Blarina) store snails for later use because they possess saliva containing neurotoxins and hemotoxins that immobilize their prey. By introducing these toxins into a wound through chewing, the shrews are able to incapacitate invertebrates like snails, allowing them to cache the prey to consume at a later time.1