Shrew-shrew: common, crumb, tiny, small, medium, giant, equal toothed and flat-skull. Photo, video and short description. Small shrew Shrew small
Introduced in Red Book of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) .
About p and with and n and r and znak about in. Small, belonging to the number of the smallest shrews, a relatively long-tailed shrew. Only a tiny shrew is smaller than hers. 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 looking at the head from the side. The head in the eye area has a pronounced narrowing. The tail is very pubescent, covered with long, very fair hair below; it is sharply refined at the base and has a clearly visible brush on the end. Two-color fur coat. Brown of various shades of the back gradually turns into a brownish-gray or gray color of the abdomen. The color of the tail is two-tone: the upper side is in tone with the color of the back, the lower side corresponds to the abdominal side of the body.
Condylobasal skull length 13.9-15.4, an average of 14.9 mm; the greatest width is 6.7-7.6, an average of 7.3 mm; the highest height is 4.2-5.3, an average of 4.7 mm. Skull with a rounded, swollen brain capsule and a narrow facial part. The greatest height of the brain capsule is approximately 2 times the height of the facial part of the skull in the region of the fourth pre-root (P 4) tooth. The first three upper intermediate teeth are almost equal in size, and their vertices are at the same level, or the second intermediate is smaller than the first and third.
С С С ДНДЫ ЕДЫ. Differs from a tiny shrew - in larger sizes and a fluffy tail; from the middle shrew - also with a fluffy tail, approximately the same height as the 1st and 3rd intermediate teeth; from other co-occurring species of shrews - in smaller sizes.
Follow the instructions. Footprints in the snow are similar to those of ordinary brown teeth, but less.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. Paired jumps (two-track) to 11.5 cm long, the track is about 2.2 wide see. Like other shrews, in winter, making hidden passages with a diameter of about 1.4 cm in the thickness of snow
Spread. The species range is occupied by 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 small 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 an area between 50 and 70 ° C. w. The northernmost point from which this shrew is known is located on the Yamal Peninsula, north of the Arctic Circle. To the east, it was mined in the Nyda and Taz rivers at the latitude of the Arctic Circle. From more southern areas there are fees from the valley of the river. Pur. On the Ob, it was mined in the region of Lower Kievat, in the Yamalo-Nenets National District; south in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Kolpashevo and on the river. Ket. Further, the border goes along Chu-lym and passes to the Yenisei, Angara and Chuya, the right tributary of the Lena. The easternmost points of the small 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 small 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 the territory of Russia, one subspecies is described - Sorex minutus minutus .
Biotop. It prefers forests with highly developed grass cover, usually moistened (especially in the south of Siberia), but in Europe it is also found in dry habitats, right up to forest-steppes, where it lives in spikes and river valleys.
It prefers to settle in places with a wet microclimate, but unlike other shrews, it populates relatively dry areas. Within the range of the animal distributed mosaic-but. Typically, in taiga and wetlands, a small shrew is held by river banks, coastal streams, lakes, swamp terraces, and other areas with relatively well-drained soils. Willingly populates forest glades with lush tall grass. In the forest-steppe part, lives in bright small-leaved forests, in meadows, on the coasts of water bodies.
Nutrition. The composition of the feed consumed by a small shrew almost does not differ from the diet of other species. It includes various invertebrate animals, mainly small insects, their eggs, larvae (caterpillars). Despite its mini-size, it is a vicious and voracious predator. In case of an animal, the animal quickly pounces on voles, exceeding it in size, vigorously and aggressively attacks the victim, bearing numerous bites. Attacking large beetles, which the animal cannot kill immediately, it pursues, biting until it bites. The applied bites are so frequent that the shrew literally does not release the victim from the teeth. Small shrew is extremely gluttonous. Her daily diet is 6 g, which is about 250% of the body weight of the animal. He eagerly eats small beetles, caterpillars, dipterans, and their larvae, butterflies, millipedes, spiders, including larvae of alkalines (wireworms), small larvae of bronze. Larvae and chafer of may (large size more than 20 mm) are used less frequently. The animal first bites the head of the larva, and then begins to eat it from the abdomen. Earthworms rarely eat.
SECTION The small shrew, in comparison with the ordinary and medium, 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. The number of embryos is 4-12. More common are females pregnant with 6 and 8 embryos, less often 11 and 12. On average, the number of embryos per pregnant female is 7.5.
Value Eats a large number of pests of agriculture and forestry.
- Class: Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758 \u003d Mammals
- Subclass: Theria Parker et Haswell, 1879 \u003d Viviparous mammals, real animals
- Infraclass: Eutheria, Placentalia Gill, 1872 \u003d Placental, higher animals
- Squadron: Ungulata \u003d Ungulates
- Order: Insectivora Bowdich, 1821 \u003d Insectivores
- Family: Soricidae Fischer von Waldheim, 1817 \u003d Shrew
Species: Sorex minutus Linnaeus, 1766 \u003d Small shrew
Appearance. Shrews are small animals, long-nosed and long-tailed.
The length of the body is 4-6 cm, the tail is 3-4.5 cm. The proboscis is longer and sharper than that of the medium and tiny shrew, with a noticeable narrowing before the eyes. The top is brownish-gray (dark coffee in winter), the bottom is grayish or yellowish. The tail is covered with thick short fur, teeth with red-brown tips (1). Ears hardly protrude from the fur. The color is dark, most often brownish-gray. 
Spread. It lives in the European part of Russia, Western and Southern Siberia to Baikal to the east, in dry forests, forest-tundra and forest-steppes, it is usual in the south of Western Siberia. They live in forests, forest-steppes and tundra, less often in the floodplains of steppe rivers and in meadows.
Biology and behavior. Contrary to the name of the shrew, they themselves do not dig holes, but use the moves of rodents and moles, cracks and voids in the soil, or move under a layer of forest litter and in the grass, trampling long rammed tunnels (2), and in the winter they trample branched paths in the thickness of snow (3 )
In winter, they hardly get out of the snow, but they do not hibernate even in the Yakut forest tundra with their terrible frosts. In cold winters, when shrews cannot get insects out of frozen soil, they have to run a lot in the snow, collecting tree seeds. The snowy passages of shrews are very narrow (up to 2 cm) (3).
Shrews have an unpleasant smell, so most predators do not eat them. Therefore, on forest paths it is often necessary to see animals killed and abandoned by a predator (4). However, owls, for example, successfully feed on shrews, leaving behind characteristic riddles (5). 
In the taiga zone, the number of shrews is usually 200-600 per ha, in the tundra - 3-5 times less.
The very high metabolic rate of these tiny animals is manifested in the fact that of all mammals, they have the greatest oxygen demand and the highest body temperature - over 40 ° C.
Traces. Traces of shrews are very shallow, small, five-fingered (6), usually located in pairs. If the snow is not covered with infusion, then a clear imprint of the tail remains behind the track (7).
Nutrition. Small animals, shrews cool very quickly in the cold, so they have to eat a lot to maintain body temperature. Shrews eat four times more per day than they weigh themselves, and die without food in a few hours.
In forests, shrews are among the largest mammals and, imperceptibly to the eye, are doing a great job of controlling the number of insects in the forest litter. Especially they eat bugs, earthworms, insect larvae. They do not disdain their own kind, especially in winter (8) (the figure shows the skin of a shrew, eaten by other shrews). In addition to animal feed, they also eat seeds (mainly coniferous trees), which are sometimes stored for the winter, sometimes mushrooms. 
They also eat their own and someone else's litter.
Reproduction. Shrews build spherical nests from stems and leaves of herbaceous plants (9). Each year, shrews have 2-3 broods, each with 2-10 cubs. Shrews breed all summer, pregnancy lasts 18-28 days. Two or three times a year, females bring blind, naked cubs, which become independent in 3-4 weeks .. .
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Sorex minutus Linnaeus, |
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Small shrew, or small shrew, or baby shrew (lat. Sorex minutus) - European type of shrew.
Description
Body length 43-64 mm, tail length 31-46 mm. Body weight 2.5-7.5 g. The color of the back is brownish-gray, reddish-coffee. The ventral side is grayish-white, sometimes yellowish-fawn. Winter fur is darker, a brownish-coffee hue. The coat on the tail is thick, long. Proboscis is very elongated, sharp.
Area
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Excerpt from the Small Shrew
She rushed to Sonya, hugged her and cried. - A little wounded, but promoted to officer; he is now healthy, he writes himself, ”she said through tears.“You can see that all of you women are crybaby,” said Petya, decisively striding around the room. - I am so very happy and, really, very glad that my brother was so distinguished. All of you nurses! do not understand anything. - Natasha smiled through tears.
“Have you read the letter?” Asked Sonya.
“I didn’t read it, but she said that everything had passed, and that he was already an officer ...”
“Thank God,” said Sonya, baptizing. “But maybe she cheated on you.” Let's go to maman.
Petya silently walked around the room.
“If I were in Nikolushka’s place, I would have killed more of these Frenchmen,” he said, “they are so vile!” I would beat them so much that they would make a bunch of them, ”continued Petya.
“Be quiet, Petya, what a fool you are!”
“I'm not a fool, but fools who cry from trifles,” said Petya.
“Do you remember him?” - after a moment of silence, Natasha asked suddenly. Sonya smiled: “Do I remember Nicolas?”
“No, Sonya, do you remember him in such a way as to remember well, in order to remember everything,” Natasha said with a diligent gesture, apparently wanting to give her words the most serious meaning. “And I remember Nikolenka, I remember,” she said. - But I don’t remember Boris. I don’t remember at all ...
- How? Do not remember Boris? Asked Sonya in surprise.
“Not that I don’t remember,” I know what he is, but I don’t remember how I remember Nikolenka. Him, I close my eyes and remember, but Boris is not (she closed her eyes), so, no - nothing!
Shrews (Soricidae) - small insectivorous animals that look like mice, but with a characteristic long pointed nose.
This is one of the richest species of mammalian families, including about 300 species in 25 genera. They are common in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia and the islands north of it, as well as parts of South America. They are found in various types of forests, in meadows, in deserts and in high mountains.
Shrews are often considered "primitive" animals. In fact, this is an advanced family among the placental that appeared in the Tertiary period. The earliest fossils were discovered in North America and date from the Middle Eocene (45 million years ago). Eurasian fossils date from the Early Oligocene (34 million years ago), and African shrews are known from the Middle Miocene (14 million years ago).
An ordinary shrew in 1607 was one of the first to be described by the English naturalist Edward Topsell. I must say that the description was completely unflattering. “These greedy animals,” he wrote, “pretend to be meek and passive, but if they are touched, they deeply bite and mortally poison them.” They are cruel and strive to bite everything around. "
Interestingly, in ancient Egypt, shrews were mummified, and, apparently, they deified the African shrew and the small Egyptian shrew.
At a higher taxonomic level, shrews are divided into two subfamilies based on whether the tips of their teeth are brown (shrews) or white (shrews). Brown color indicates the deposition of iron on tooth enamel.
The subfamily Shrew (Soricinae) includes about 150 species, among which the common, gray, swamp, common short-tailed, giant shrew, etc.
The subfamily Shrew (Crocidurinae) includes 151 species. This is an African shrew, a small Egyptian shrew, a small shrew, an ordinary shrew, an armored shrew, a ruvenzor shrew, etc.
About 20 species of these animals live in Russia; shrew is more common.
What do shrews look like?
Externally, the shrew resembles a mouse with a long nose. Small sizes: body length from 3 to 15 cm, weight from 2 to 100 g.
This family includes the smallest mammal - a dwarf polydent (Molar tooth) (Suncus etruscus). It is no larger than a tiny hummingbird in size, and weighs only 2 grams.
Dwarf Tooth
The largest species is a giant many-toothed shrew (Suncus murinus); the length of her body reaches 15 cm.
Giant shrew
The head of the animals is relatively large, with a very elongated facial section and a facial part elongated into the proboscis. The eyes are small, sometimes they are hidden in the fur.
The coat is short and thick, mostly gray-brown. The tail is covered with short hairs.
The limbs are five-fingered. The webbed shrew between the fingers has membranes. In other aquatic species, such as swamp shrews, paws, fingers and tail are covered with fringe of hard hair, which contributes to better movement under water.
Weak eyesight is compensated by the sense of smell and hearing, although in some species the outer ear is greatly reduced and difficult to distinguish. In a mole shrew, which looks very similar to a mole (more about moles) and leads a nocturnal lifestyle, eyes and ears are reduced even more than in other species.
The milk teeth of the shrews fall out or dissolve during embryonic development, and the cubs are born already with permanent teeth. It should be noted that representatives of some species can be distinguished from close relatives only in the shape of their teeth.
Among all species of particular interest is the Uganda shrew-armored carrier. From all others it stands out for its unique skeleton structure, distinguished by the presence of cross-linked lateral, dorsal and abdominal outgrowths on the spine. Such a feature was not found in any other mammal. This intricate openwork reinforcement makes the spine extremely durable. There is evidence that the shrew-armored carrier could bear the weight of an adult.
Armored Shrew
Shrew and shrew lifestyle
The name of these animals does not accurately reflect their lifestyle. They rarely dig earth, preferring to delve into the forest litter or using the moves of moles and mice.
They lead mainly a terrestrial way of life, some species can climb trees, others live underground. There are even those who have a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Shrews are active around the clock, but the greatest activity is observed in twilight and night hours.
Most species prefer a solitary lifestyle, and only South African multi-toothed shrew creates long-term pairs. An ordinary short-eared shrew probably leads a more or less permanent colonial way of life, while individuals of an ordinary shrew shrink into groups in winter in order to be warmer. Due to high food requirements, some species protect their territory from the invasion of relatives.
Some species dig complex tunnel systems that can be the center of protected areas. In an ordinary kutor, the tunnel system is important for pushing the fur from the water. A tunnel system with more than one entrance can also serve as a shelter from predators. Nests are usually located in the dead end of the tunnel system and are covered with grass. Here the animals spend most of the time relaxing and sleeping.
Power Features
The diet of shrews consists mainly of various invertebrates: insects, their larvae, earthworms, etc. Often, animals attack small vertebrates.
Regarding the size of the body, animals eat a lot of food. Some species can not do without food for more than 1-2 hours. High metabolism is associated with other amazing features of these animals, for example, a heart rate of more than 1000 beats per minute was attested. In some northern species, in particular, in an ordinary shrew, the skull and some internal organs are reduced to reduce energy demand in winter!
The shrews satisfy their high requirements for food and water mainly due to the fact that they live in places with abundant sources of food and drink. Some species may become numb at a time when they cannot find food.
Many species are completely illegible in food. For example, an ordinary shrew eats almost all invertebrates that come in its way. She tirelessly prowls along the paths of rodents or in vegetation, randomly bumping into prey. A species like putorak feeds on lizards.
Common shrew
Interestingly, the victims of shrews are not very different in size, and earthworms, mollusks or vertebrates are often larger.
Bites of some species are poisonous. The salivary glands of short-tailed American shrews, for example, produce enough poison to kill about 200 mice by intravenous injection! The animal kills or paralyzes the victim with poison before eating it. Poison plays an important role in hunting relatively large vertebrates. Also, with its help, shrews immobilize insects to keep them in reserve. Some species, such as American shrews, store food in hiding places.
Procreation
For species living in regions with a temperate and cold climate, a seasonal pattern of reproduction is characteristic. Tropical species "play weddings" all year round. Pregnancy in different species lasts from 17 to 32 days. Cubs are born naked and blind, but develop very quickly.
An ordinary shrew begins breeding in the second year of life. The breeding season is in April. Usually adult females produce 1 or 2 broods of 4-8 cubs, and then die. By the same time, adult males die, so that at the end of summer immature young animals dominate in the population.
For a giant multi-tooth shrew, as well as for an ordinary shrew, promiscuity is characteristic: scientists recorded a case when a female mated with eight different males 278 times in two hours!
In some species, the cubs exhibit “caravan” behavior. The grown up kids, leaving the nest, line up in such a way that everyone grabs his teeth at the back of the body in front of him, and the very first grabs at his mother. Their grip is so tenacious that the entire caravan can be raised entirely above the ground, if you take only the female.
Conservation in nature
To date, 29 species are in critical condition, 30 are in a fearsome state, and 56 species are vulnerable.
Shrews, as a successful group of small and rapidly breeding mammals with high reproductive potential, seem to be resistant to the threat of human survival caused by them. However, it is not. Many tropical species are dotted. At the present level of extinction of tropical forests, many of these species are doomed to extinction.
But extinction affects not only species with narrow habitats. Studies in Britain have shown that the numbers of common shrews drop sharply there. Thus, shrews, like many other animals, need monitoring and care.
In contact with
Family Shrew (Soricidae).
In Belarus, an ordinary, fairly numerous, widespread species.It occurs throughout the republic, second only to an ordinary shrew.Refers to subspecies S. m. minutus.
The muzzle is very elongated and pointed, which is especially striking when compared with other types 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. For a small shrew, like for other shrews, a decrease in the size of the body and skull in winter (the “Danel phenomenon”) is characteristic, which is apparently an adaptation to the low-feed period.
The body, like that of other shrews, is almost cylindrical; the cervical spine is weakly expressed from the outside. The head is conical, ending in a very elongated, sharp, movable proboscis. The eyes are small and faint, the auricles are covered with fur and hardly noticeable. The limbs are small, short, five-fingered.
Has 32 teeth with reddish-brown tops.
The fur is short, velvety, in the summer on the back brownish-gray, on the abdomen grayish-white. Winter fur on the back is much darker, with developed brownish-coffee hues, on the abdomen is lighter.The color of the summer fur of young people is usually more dull, the belly is grayish-white, not rarely with a fawn shade. The tail is two-tone, sharply narrowed at the base. The light coloration of its lower side extends to the sides. The end hair is dark.
Prefers sparse, well-lit areas. It inhabits forests, mainly deciduous and mixed, meadows. It occurs on waste land, in thickets of tall grasses, in a strip of cultivated land, in gardens and parks. In winter, it sometimes comes close to and in buildings of maneven residential . Inhabits dry lit slopes of the banks of rivers and lakes, overgrown with woodlands with rich grass cover.
Active around the clock somemore intense at nightalternating brief periods of sleep and food search. It preys mainly on the soil surface and in the upper layers of forest litter, therefore, among the feeding objects there are no insect larvae and earthworms. Sometimes it even attacks frogs. No feed can live no more than 9 hours.
The shrew feeds on small insects, millipedes, 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 eagerly eats dung beetles, gherkins, ground beetles, leaf beetles, and nutcrackers. In winter, 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 a small shrew feeds mainly on terrestrial invertebrates, and an ordinary shrew feeds in the soil.
Maturity occurs at the age of 7-8 months, normally mature after wintering. The breeding season is about 5 months (warm season of the year).The beginning and end of the breeding of a small shrew depends on the weather conditions of the year . In late April - early May, pregnant females were prey, and in early June yearlings are found.
During the warm period, the small shrew has 1-3 broods, each from 4 to 12 (usually 6-8) cubs. They are born naked, blind, helpless. Even ground beetle can be dangerous for such animals. The duration of pregnancy has not been established.
The nest of the small shrew is a loose spherical-shaped lump of dry grass and other plant materials, which is placed under old heaps of brushwoodstumps in the roots of trees. The outer diameter of the nest building is 7-10 cm, with one side entrance.
