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Season Watch

Minnesota's much-maligned shrews hide evolutionary superpowers

By Heidi Holtan,
Charlie Mitchell
Published February 5, 2026 at 10:37 AM CST
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A small grey shrew with long whiskers and an extended snout perches on a small rock in a stream.
Contributed
/
iNaturalist user Joseph C Whittaker
A northern water shrew investigates near a stream in Clearwater County on June 18, 2021.

In this episode, co-hosts Charlie Mitchell and Heidi Holtan delight in a report from Northfield and discuss critter superpowers.

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What mammal has echolocation, venom, and the ability to smell things underwater?

This week, co-hosts Heidi Holtan (director of public affairs, enemy of rodents) and Charlie Mitchell (phenology coordinator, rodent apologist) learn fun facts about Minnesota's shrews and how groundhogs make their own tranquilizers.

Attributions

  • Trumpeter Swan call by iNaturalist user kimcwren, observation number 201312591.
  • John Latimer's phenology report and the Prairie Creek Community School report originally aired on KAXE.

Love the podcast? Would you like a shrew in your house to keep the mouse population under control? Let us know!

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Tags
Season Watch KAXENorthern MinnesotaPhenologywinter phenology
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Heidi Holtan
Heidi Holtan has been involved with KAXE since 2002. Now as Director of Content and Public Affairs she manages and is the host of the KAXE Morning Show, including a variety of local content like Phenology, What's for Breakfast, Area Voices, The Sports Page and much more, alongside Morning Edition from NPR. Her latest project is Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen.
See stories by Heidi Holtan
Charlie Mitchell
Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined KAXE in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, produces the Phenology Talkbacks show, coordinates the Phenology in the Classroom program, and writes nature-related stories for KAXE's website. Essentailly, Charlie is John Latimer's faithful sidekick and makes sure all of KAXE's nature/phenology programs find a second life online and in podcast form.


With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, Charlie enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, or the star-nosed mole. (Fun fact: Moles store fat in their tails, so they don't outgrow their tunnels every time conditions are good.)
See stories by Charlie Mitchell
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