Amazing species of shrews: common, tiny, giant, etc. Lesser shrew Lesser shrew

26.10.2019

Family Shrews (Soricidae).

In Belarus, a common, fairly numerous, widespread species.It is found throughout the republic, inferior in number only to the common shrew. Belongs to the subspecies S. m. minutes.

The muzzle is strongly elongated and pointed, which is especially striking when compared with other species of shrews. The sizes are small. Length: body 3.9-6.4 cm, tail 3.1-4.7 cm, feet 0.8-1.2 cm, ear 0.5-0.6 mm. Body weight 2.5-7.5 g. The lesser shrew, like other shrews, is characterized by a decrease in the size of the body and skull in winter (“Denel's phenomenon”), apparently an adaptation to a low-feeding period.

The body, like that of other shrews, is almost cylindrical, the cervical region is weakly expressed from the outside. The head is cone-shaped, ending in a strongly elongated, pointed, movable proboscis. The eyes are small and inconspicuous, the auricles are covered with fur and hardly noticeable. The limbs are small, short, five-fingered.

It has 32 teeth with reddish-brown tops.

The fur is short, velvety, brownish-gray on the back in summer, grayish-white on the abdomen. Winter fur on the back is much darker, with developed brownish-coffee hues, on the belly it is lighter. The color of the summer fur of the young is usually duller, the belly is grayish-white, often with a fawn tint. The tail is two-tone, sharply narrowed at the base. The light coloration of its lower side also extends to the sides. The terminal hairs are dark.

Prefers sparse, well-lit areas. Inhabits forests, mostly deciduous and mixed, meadows. It occurs on waste lands, in thickets of tall grasses, in a strip of cultivated lands, in gardens, parks. In winter, sometimes found near and in human buildings, even residential . Inhabits dry illuminated slopes of rivers and lakes, overgrown with light forests with rich grass cover.

Active around the clock somemore intense at night alternating brief periods of sleep and foraging. It hunts mainly on the surface of the soil and in the upper layers of the forest litter; therefore, there are no insect larvae and earthworms among the food objects. Sometimes it even attacks frogs. Without food can live no more than 9 hours.

The shrew feeds on small insects, centipedes, spiders, mollusks and daily eats them more than 2 times more than it weighs itself. Prefers soft food, due to the small size of the body and teeth. Of the beetles, it willingly eats dung beetles, beetles, ground beetles, leaf beetles, and click beetles. In winter, it is herbivorous (seeds of spruce, pine, etc.).

The weight of the daily diet is 130-300% of body weight. Food competition with the common shrew is small, so how the little shrew feeds mainly on terrestrial invertebrates, and the common shrew - living in the soil.

Sexual maturity occurs at the age of 7-8 months, normally mature after wintering. The breeding period is about 5 months (the warm season of the year). The beginning and end of the reproduction of the little shrew depends on the weather conditions of the year . In late April - early May, pregnant females were caught, and in early June, underyearlings come across.

During the warm period, the little shrew has 1-3 broods, each with 4 to 12 (usually 6-8) cubs. They are born naked, blind, helpless. Even the ground beetle can be dangerous for such animals. The duration of pregnancy has not been established.

The nest of the lesser shrew is a loose spherical clump of dry grass and other plant materials, which is placed under piles of brushwood, oldstumps, in the roots of trees. The outer diameter of the nest building is 7-10 cm, with one side entrance.

Included in Red Book of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) .

Description of the signs. Small, belonging to the number of the smallest shrews, relatively long-tailed shrew. Only the tiny shrew is smaller than her. Body length with head 40-64 mm; tail length 31-42 mm; foot length 9-11 mm; weight 2.4-5.0g. The proboscis is narrow and long, which is especially striking when viewed from the side of the head. The head in the region of the eyes has a well-defined constriction. The tail is strongly pubescent, covered with long, very light hair below; it is sharply thinned at the base and has a well-marked tassel at the end. Ok-raska fur two-tone. The brown of different shades of the back gradually turns into a brownish-gray or gray color of the abdomen. The coloration of the tail is two-tone: the upper side matches the color of the back, the lower side corresponds to the ventral side of the body.

Condylobasal length of the skull 13.9-15.4, 14.9 mm on average; the greatest width is 6.7-7.6, on average 7.3 mm; the greatest height is 4.2-5.3, on average 4.7 mm. Skull with a rounded, swollen brain capsule and a narrow face. The greatest height of the brain capsule is about 2 times the height of the facial part of the skull in the region of the fourth premolar (P 4) tooth. The first three upper intermediate teeth are almost equal in size, and their apices are at the same level, or the second intermediate is smaller than the first and third.

C o d n y ev i d y. Differs from the tiny shrew - larger size and fluffy tail; from the middle shrew - also with a fluffy tail, approximately the same height of the 1st and 3rd intermediate teeth; from other jointly occurring species of shrews - in smaller sizes.

R e c o u n s o f th e life Footprints in the snow are similar to those of the common brown-tooth, but smaller. When the animal moves in jumps, the length of the jumps is from 3.5 to 5.5 cm, the width of the track is about 2.5 cm. see. Like other shrews, in winter, making hidden passages with a diameter of about 1.4 cm in the thickness of the snow

Spreading. The range of the species occupies the forest and forest-steppe regions of the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, Siberia to Lake Baikal. To the east of the Urals, the range of the lesser shrew includes a vast area, mainly in Western Siberia and, to a lesser extent, in the south of Central Siberia. In the foothills of the Urals, it inhabits the territory between 50 and 70 ° N. sh. The northernmost point where this shrew is known from is located on the Yamal Peninsula, north of the Arctic Circle. To the east, it was mined in the basin of the Nyda and Taz rivers at the latitude of the Arctic Circle. From the more southern regions there are collections from the river valley. Pur. Along the Ob, it was mined in the Nizhny Kievat region, in the Yamalo-Nenets national district; to the south in the area of the city of Kolpashevo and on the river. Ket. Further, the border goes along the Chu-lym and passes to the Yenisei, the Angara and the Chuya, the right tributary of the Lena. The most eastern locations of the lesser shrew are located on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal and along the Selenga. The southern border runs along the state border. Thus, the range of the lesser shrew in Siberia is a wedge with a base in the Urals, which gradually narrows to the southeast with a peak near Lake. Baikal.

In Evenkia, as well as throughout Russia, one subspecies is described - sorex minutes minutes .

B i o t o p s. Prefers forests with a well-developed grass cover, usually moist (especially in the south of Siberia), but in Europe it is also found in dry habitats, up to forest-steppes, where it settles in pegs and river valleys.

It prefers to settle in places with a humid microclimate, but unlike other shrews, it inhabits relatively dry areas. Within the range, the animal is distributed mosaically. Usually, in taiga and swampy areas, the little shrew adheres to riverbanks, banks of streams, lakes, marsh terraces and other areas with relatively well-drained soils. Willingly populates forest glades with lush tall grass. In the forest-steppe part lives in light small-leaved forests, meadows, shores of water bodies.

Nutrition. The composition of the feed consumed by the little shrew is almost the same as the diet of other species. It includes various invertebrates, mainly small insects, their eggs, larvae (caterpillars). Despite its miniature size, it is a vicious and voracious predator. On occasion, the animal swiftly attacks the voles, surpassing it in size, vigorously and persistently attacks the victim, inflicting numerous bites. Attacking large beetles, which the animal cannot kill immediately, it pursues, biting until it bites. The bites inflicted are so frequent that the shrew literally does not let the victim out of its teeth. The little shrew is extremely voracious. Her daily diet is 6 g, which is about 250% of the animal's body weight. Willingly eats small beetles, caterpillars, dipterans and their larvae, butterflies, centipedes, spiders, including larvae of clickworms (wireworms), small bronze larvae. Large larvae of bronze and May beetle (more than 20 mm in size) are eaten less often. The animal first bites through the head of the larva, and then begins to eat it from the abdomen. Rarely eats earthworms.

C a m n o d e n and e. The small shrew, in comparison with the common and middle shrew, begins to breed somewhat later. The first pregnant females were registered at the end of July and met throughout the summer until September. The first arrived animals appear in June. Number of embryos 4-12. More common are females pregnant with 6 and 8 embryos, less often 11 and 12. The average number of embryos per pregnant female is 7.5.

Meaning. Eats a large number of pests of agriculture and forestry.

Shrews are mammals that belong to the shrew family., including more than seventy species, of which about seventeen are located on the territory of the Russian Federation. They have an elongated muzzle. Outside, the tail consists of hair of the same length. The ears are small, the back is black-brown or black, the belly is light, brown-gray, some species are of the same color. Three pairs of teats, 32 teeth, brown or red-brown crowns. Body size from 5 to 9 centimeters, tail length, from base to end without terminal hair, 2.8-8 cm, body weight from 2 to 35 grams.

Shrew:

Types of shrews: a brief description of what they eat and where they live

There are many different types of shrews, but the following are the most common.

ordinary

The presented species of mammals has the following characteristic features:

He likes the temperate climate of deciduous, mixed forests, where high humidity prevails;
It feeds on plant debris, larvae, spiders, worms, if necessary, feeds on small carrion;

REFERENCE: The first and second intermediate teeth are larger than the third and fourth, the fifth is the smallest, not brown.

Breeds at any time of the year, bears up to ten cubs at a time;
Lives up to two years;
Body size from 6 to 9 centimeters, tail length from 3.5 to 5 centimeters, weight from 6 to 15 grams.

Little shrew (American)

It is the smallest of the shrews. It is found in North America, in deciduous and coniferous forests.

Body size from 3 to 5 centimeters, tail 2-2.5 centimeters, weight from 2 to 3 grams.

It has the following characteristic features:

In winter, the fur becomes lighter, which allows shrews to hide from predators;
It feeds on worms, larvae, small spiders.
It breeds only once, bearing from 3 to 8 cubs.

tiny

It can be found in Scandinavian countries and in the expanses of the Russian Federation: in the tundra, semi-deserts, steppes, steppes, as well as on the edges of swamps.

REFERENCE: The first, second, third intermediate teeth are equal.

Body size from 2 to 5 centimeters, tail from 1 to 3 centimeters, body weight from 3 to 4 grams. The coloration is dark brown or light brown. It feeds eight times a day on larvae and small spiders.

At one time bears from 4 to 16 cubs. Included in the Red Book.

Malaya

The habitat extends from the European part of Eurasia to Southern Siberia, loves forests with high humidity, grass cover. In Europe, this species of shrew can be found in the forest-steppe.

It has the following characteristic features:

Body size from 6 to 7.5 centimeters;
Tail 2 to 3 centimeters;
Weight up to 5 grams;
In winter, darkening of the coat is observed;
He loves moisture, eats worms, spiders, in rare cases, plant seeds.
Reproduction occurs only in summer, at one time it produces from 4 to 13 cubs.

The second intermediate tooth is lower than the first and third. Smaller teeth compared to other shrews.

Medium

Can be found in areas of the Far East, Korea, areas from Eastern Europe to Mongolia. Coniferous, mixed forests.

The body length is 5.8-7.7 cm, the tail length is from 3.6 to 4.2 cm, the body weight is 4-8.6 g. There is no "scoop". It has short claws and a thin tail. It breeds in late spring, summer, early autumn, bears 1-12 cubs at a time. Eats larvae, spiders, beetles, earthworms.

REFERENCE: The third and fourth intermediate teeth are equal, smaller than the first and second, the fifth is much smaller than all.

Giant

In Latin, Sorex Mirabilis, which translates as an amazing shrew. The body length is more than 7.5 cm, the longitudinal length of the skull is more than 2.2 cm, the weight is 14 grams, the posterior apex of the upper anterior incisor is poorly developed.

The color is dark: the back is brownish-brown, the belly is light.

Favorite places: North Korean Peninsula, Far East, China.

Shrew (shrew):

It breeds once a year, the population is reduced, the species is listed in the Red Book.

Of the intermediate teeth, the first is the highest, the third is lower than the fourth, the fifth is rudimentary.

equal-toothed

Habitat from central Europe to Northern Belarus.

It has the following characteristics:

Body size from 6 to 9 centimeters;

REFERENCE: Teeth decrease uniformly in height of unimodal teeth from the first to the fifth. The fifth tooth has pigmentation.

The length of the tail is from three and a half to five centimeters;
Body weight 6.5-20 grams;
Listed in the Red Book.
It feeds on insects, during the winter it passes to the seeds of spruce, deciduous trees.
Life expectancy is one and a half years.
In the taiga mountains of southern Siberia, the most numerous species of shrews.

Shrew:

Flat skull (brown)

It is characterized by such features:

Body length 7.5-9.2 centimeters;
Tail length 3.7-4.3 centimeters;
Body weight - 8-14.5 grams;
The tail is well pubescent, there is no "scoop" on the back;
Light belly, dark brown back, short claws, larger sizes;
Likes: taiga forest, forest-tundra from the Urals to Sakhalin;
It feeds on earthworms, insects, mainly beetles.

ATTENTION: In winter, shrews hibernate. It is potentially impossible to see them on a snow blanket. Due to the overly bright coat, animals leave the territories under the snow only in situations of emergency or when they are very hungry.

Reproduction occurs in the summer and brings two, three litters, each from seven to fourteen individuals.

Shrews are a unique animal, albeit very small. And this is also confirmed by the fact that the shrew maintains the highest body temperature in comparison with the mammals of the Earth - from 40C.

Common shrew:

The whole life of these tiny animals is an endless search for food. They eat all the time, day and night. This is not surprising, because with such a small body weight (on average 7-8 g), they have the highest oxygen demand among mammals, the fastest metabolism and the highest body temperature - over 40 ° C. Despite their small size, these animals are agile and merciless predators. They eat anything and anyone they can grab and handle.

These small animals are very similar in size, appearance and color to mouse-like rodents, but belong to another order - shrews. This is no accident, because shrews, unlike herbivorous rodents, are dexterous voracious predators; they never gnaw hard objects with their front incisors, as mice and rats do. Their long muzzle ends with a movable proboscis. At its tip are sensitive "whiskers" - vibrissae. This spout penetrates the narrowest crevices and holes in search of prey. The shrew finds larvae and worms using its sense of smell, touch, and echolocation. It continuously emits high-frequency sounds and determines the distance to the object. The enamel of the front teeth of the shrew is colored reddish-brown, this feature gave the name to the animals.

IN ETERNAL SEARCH FOR FOOD

Shrews eat day and night, because they need a lot of energy. The amount of food eaten per day exceeds their own weight by 3-4 times. The animals cope with prey larger than themselves, they can grab and eat a small lizard, a frog and even a chick that has fallen out of the nest. Sometimes they eat plant seeds and berries. They do not disdain their own kind, especially in winter. Sometimes in the snow you can see the skins of shrews eaten by their own brethren.

Shrews sleep for 10-15 minutes between meals. Without access to food, the shrew dies within 2 hours. Due to such physiological features in animals, so-called polyphasic activity occurs during the day. The interval between two phases of activity is on average 1-3 hours. In the lesser shrew, the ratio of activity during the day and at night is almost the same. Due to the rapid metabolism, they cannot make fat reserves in the body and therefore do not hibernate during the cold season. In winter, they search for prey in the forest floor under the snow. These are frozen insect larvae, small frogs and lizards, beetles and other invertebrates.

LINKED AS A CHAIN

During the breeding season, animals do not create pairs, they live alone. One male visits several females. Female shrews are capable of breeding already in the year of birth.

In mid-March, shrews build a nest from dry stems and roots of herbaceous plants. Inside it is carefully lined with moss. The nest is located not high from the ground, on a rotten stump, in an old mouse hole or simply among the grass.

Pregnancy lasts about 28 days, and during the summer the shrew brings 2-3 broods of 7-10 cubs. Naked blind newborn shrews are absolutely helpless. But after 10 days they leave the nest and try to look for food. Kids at the slightest danger, as if on command, all as one line up in single file one after another. So, if you transfer a female with two-three-week-old cubs to an unfamiliar environment, then they very quickly line up in one chain led by the mother. Such a phenomenon - movement in a caravan - is known in other species of shrews, as well as in dormouse. When a caravan is formed, each cub first grabs the nearest neighbor for any, the first part of the body that comes across, as a result of which an uneven caravan is formed in two rows. However, after a few seconds, the animals correct their mistake and, having captured the tail of the brother in front of them with their teeth, they stretch out in one line. The formation of a caravan occurs in young shrews until they achieve independence. The impetus for this can be noise, cold or dampness, an extraneous smell or someone else's touch. As soon as the kids smell the nest, the caravan immediately breaks up. A living caravan moves as a single creature with one head and many legs in a strictly defined direction. All cubs accurately follow their mother, speeding up and slowing down with her. In the event of a sudden stop after a quick run, the animals freeze in place as if rooted to the spot, not showing signs of life with a single movement.

Until the age of one month, shrews are tolerant of each other. They can warm each other and share the same shelter with other individuals. After that, they disperse and each settle in their own territory, no more than a dozen meters in size, carefully guarding it. Shrews are quite aggressive towards their relatives. Fights often end with the death of one of the animals. Even during the breeding season, animals do not create pairs, but live alone. One male visits several females.

Shrews inhabit the forest floor, they do not dig their own holes, but use the old holes of rodents and moles, voids and cracks in the soil, or simply tread their own passages in loose substrate. In winter, they make long branched passages in the thickness of the snow and almost never come out from under it. If the ground freezes so much that shrews cannot get to food, then they have to get to the surface in search of tree seeds. Then you can see the lines of their tracks, prints of small paws no more than 5 mm. The animal moves in short jumps, so the tracks remain paired, on loose snow you can see a trace from the tail.

shrew- this is a small size (from a few centimeters, in rare cases - up to 1 decimeter) animal belonging to the shrew family, weighing only a dozen grams.

As seen on a photo, shrew outwardly resembles a field one, differing from it only in an elongated muzzle, similar to a proboscis, and a tail, sometimes larger than the body itself, with short hairs.

In addition, the animal has small beady eyes, white teeth, large hind legs, velvety coat and dark brown, in some cases almost black, color. The top is darker and the bottom is lighter. Animals are extremely common in Northern Europe and belong to the most numerous genus of mammals.

They like to settle in shrubs and grass thickets, and live, as a rule, in the undergrowth. In some cases, like, they can also settle in people's homes.

common shrew especially adapted to areas with a temperate climate. The animal can often be observed in the shade of mixed and deciduous forests, where it prefers moist areas covered with plant debris.

Arctic shrew is a resident of Siberia and the tundra, also found in the far north of the American continent. The animals molt a couple of times a year (just at the junctions of the cold and warm cycles of the northern climate), changing the fur from bright and dense in the winter months to a rarer coat of discreet tones in the favorable season. The color of the fur itself is interesting and has three shades of brown, changing from light to grayish and completely dark.

giant shrew, having a body length of 10 cm, is found in the north of the Korean Peninsula, the Far East and China. The population of this animal is sharply declining, in view of this state of affairs, measures are being taken to protect it.

Pictured is a giant shrew

Lesser shrew much smaller and reaches a length of no more than 6 cm, and often much smaller. Found in the Caucasus, Kyrgyzstan and Siberia. Usually has a coffee-red color. The smallest (about 4 cm) is tiny shrew, which is not in vain considered the smallest representative of mammals in.

Pictured is a small shrew

The nature and lifestyle of the shrew

Unlike rodents, mice, shrew refers to insectivorous mammals. In addition, she does not dig minks, but lives in the forest floor: the surface of the earth, covered with fallen leaves and withered, last year's grass.

In winter, the animal does not hibernate, so you can meet it in an active state at all times of the year. The shrew is cautious, and its main life takes place at night. But it can carry out its activities at any other time of the day, especially being activated a few hours before sunset.

She is able to make winding passages in soft soil, under snow and in loose forest litter, doing this with the help of her proboscis and paws. Sometimes, for his advances, he also uses the moves of rodents:, voles,.

Small shrew shrew has poor eyesight. And the main organs that help her survive in this world are touch and smell. In addition, at night, she is helped to navigate by such a special and unique device, given to her by nature, as echolocation.

A similar addition to other sense organons, which distinguishes her from many other living beings, helps her not to get lost in the darkness among the grass stems and plant roots.

In search of what it aspires to, the shrew emits sound impulses. And the ears of the animal, which have a peculiar structure, receive the necessary signals in response, giving it the necessary information about the features of the surrounding world.

Nutrition

The animal, despite its modest size, is extremely voracious, consuming twice its weight in food per day.

And she finds food, actively rummaging in the upper layers of the soil, which has the misfortune to greatly annoy avid gardeners and gardeners. But it is better not to rush to be angry with neighbors such as shrews, because animals can help get rid of many pests: caterpillars, leaf beetles, click beetles, slugs.

Moreover, a shrew rarely catches the eye of a person, because it operates mainly at night, actively swarming in the garbage. The animal feeds on terrestrial invertebrates: snails, centipedes, spiders and earthworms.

In the forest floor, teeming with small living creatures, where she lives, it is not difficult for her to get food during favorable periods. Also, the shrew is quite capable of eating bird droppings, carrion and plant seeds, which usually make up its winter diet.

While eating, the animal, as a rule, rests on all four paws, but in some cases, for example, when eating slippery worms or beetles, it can use its front paws to hold its prey.

Often, in search of something to eat, the shrew climbs trees, climbing the trunk, clinging to the bumps in the bark with its paws to feast on the eggs of a nun butterfly or a gypsy moth.

To get food, the shrew is able to attack even such large, in comparison with its size, animals as small rodents and frogs. And in case of victory, it eats them almost entirely, leaving only the skins and bones of its victims.

Many frogs become prey for shrews during hibernation, and when the snow melts, only their thoroughly gnawed skeletons can be found on the forest floor.

Reproduction and lifespan

The breeding season for animals begins in early spring, usually in March, and ends in late autumn.

During this period, the mother shrew is able to give birth to several broods (from two to four), each of which adds 3-9 cubs to the number of this species of insectivorous cubs.

The pregnancy of the animal lasts about three to four weeks. And by the end of the gestation period, shrews build a nest among the roots of trees or stones. They build a dwelling for their future children from leaves and moss, wrapping it with something soft for convenience.

Small shrews develop quickly, although they are born completely blind and with an unprotected, naked body. Over the next three weeks, from the moment they are born, they feed on mother's milk.

After two weeks, the cubs' viewing pupils open, and they begin to become covered with hair. And after 3-4 months they themselves are able to bear offspring. The animals live for about 18-23 months, but during this time they are able to multiply greatly.