Subject: Re: The Thumping of the Shrew
Date: Jul 19 12:58:53 1995
From: Jack Bowling - jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca


Michael Price relates:

>Tonight, Mary Peete-Leslie and her sister observed a male American Robin
>beating an adult shrew to death in Campbell Valley Park in Langley, to the
>SE of Vancouver BC. The bird was dashing the head of the shrew against the
>packed earth of a pathway, then shaking the shrew, "Like a hawk killing a
>snake." according to Mary. A young half-grown shrew was immediately >nearby; maybe the adult shrew was a female, perhaps suckling the young >when it was struck by the robin. The robin took off with the shrew in its >bill.

>Carnivory in *robins*? Isn't that a sign of the coming of the Anti-Christ? ;-

Robins routinely take leeches from the fresh-water lakes around Prince
George. Some of these leeches are at least as big as the robin. The robins use
much the same method - grab it and slap it around on the ground until it
doesn't move anymore. Question: Which would be worse - a shrew with a gall
bladder so obnoxious that even cats won't touch them; or that most heinous
of all creatures the lowly leech? I think I'll become a vegetarian. At least
you can't hear the carrot scream when you pull it out of the ground.


,Jack



Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
CANADA
jack_bowling at mindlink.bc.ca