The tiny shrew is a mammal of the insectivorous shrew family, similar to a small mouse. The tiny animal got its name from the word "brown", since the tops of the creature's teeth really differ in this unusual color.
Habitat
You can meet the shrew almost everywhere, often more than three species of these animals live in the same area at the same time. For example, in the Moscow region there are as many as six varieties of shrews: common shrew, small and medium, tiny, even-toothed and shrew.
Equal-toothed are found along the creeks and river banks, as well as the common water shrew - great lovers of dampness. The middle and tiny shrews are among the rarest species that prefer coniferous and taiga forests. The lesser shrew and the common shrew settle in open areas - in the steppe, meadows, and light forests.
The shrew is unpretentious in terms of comfortable living conditions, but an abundance of food all year round is a necessary condition for it. Travel long distances in search of fooda small animal is not possible, and she is not able to survive without food for more than 3-4 hours.
Characteristic
The tiny shrew is one of the smallest insectivorous creatures in Russia and Europe. The size of an adult, together with the tail, is 6-7 cm, and the weight does not exceed five grams. The description of the tiny shrew is more correct to start with silky soft coffee-colored fur on the back, turning into a light fluff on the stomach. The tail, which is a little more than half the length of the shrew's body, is also two-colored. The paws are not covered with fur.
In summer, the color of the beast fades slightly, in winter it becomes more saturated. The ears of the animal are small, but the hearing is very well developed, as is the sense of touch and instinct. The elongated head ends with a proboscis nose with bristling vibrissae (long whiskers).
The shrews do not live more than a year and a half, and their breeding season lasts about a fifth of this short life. Unlike most animals, the female's gestation period is not strictly fixed. The cubs will be born he althy in 18 and 28 days. The average number of babies per offspring is about five, but sometimes 8. During her life, an adult female brings from 1 to two litters.
Lifestyle
The tiny shrew's high vitality is due to the constant search for food. At least 70 times during the day, the activity of the animal freezes for a short time - a 10-15-minute sleep. Then the bustle resumes.
ForTo maintain a normal life, the tiny shrew must consume an amount of food twice its body weight. In the warm season, intensive searches for food are carried out throughout the entire territory that the animal is able to cover in short dashes: on trees, in the soil. In winter, the search is transferred exclusively to the soil, and under the snow the animal orientates as well as in open space.
Shrews willingly eat everything that is smaller than themselves, but in the cold season they do not disdain the waste products of their own kind and other large animals. In a particularly hungry time, adult shrews calmly include cubs of their fellow tribesmen in their diet.
Interesting facts
In winter, shrews do not hibernate, but it is almost impossible to see them on the surface of the snow cover. Due to the overly bright coloring, animals leave the snowy territories only in situations of emergency and when they are very hungry. This prudence could be called superfluous, since the strong specific smell of the animal discourages predators from hunting, if it were not for owls - the only representatives of the predatory fauna who are not so whimsical.
Despite its small stature, the shrew is a carrier of a huge number of various parasites and mites. Insects settle in the animal's thick fur and are often the cause of death for the shrew.
Another interesting fact is that the tiny shrew retains the highestbody temperature compared to all mammals on the planet - from 400С.
Most of all animals of this species live in the taiga - an average of 350-400 shrews per 1 ha, but in other areas of their habitat, the existence of tiny creatures is under threat. In the Murmansk region, the tiny shrew is listed in the Red Book.
