Etruscan shrew

Appearance

The Etruscan shrew has a slender body, with a length between 3 and 4.5 centimetres excluding the tail. The tail is longer than half of the body. The body mass varies between 1.3 grams and 2.4 grams and is usually about 1.8 grams . The head is relatively large, with a long, mobile proboscis, and the hind limbs are relatively small. The Etruscan shrew has a very fast heart beating rate, up to 1511 beats/min and a relatively large heart muscle mass, 1.2% of body weight. The fur color on the back and sides is pale brown, but is light gray on the stomach. The shrew usually has 30 teeth, but the 4th upper intermediate tooth is very small , and is absent in some individuals. Near the mouth growth a dense array of short whiskers, which the shrew actively uses in searching for prey, especially in the night. Dimorphism in body features between males and females is absent.

Distribution

The Etruscan shrew inhabits a belt extending between 10° and 40°N latitude across Eurasia. In Southern Europe, it has been found in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey, with unconfirmed reports in Andorra, Gibraltar and Monaco; it has been introduced by humans to some European islands, such as Canary Islands.

The shrew also occurs in North Africa and around Arabian Peninsula . In Asia, it was observed in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Borneo, Bhutan, China , Burma, Georgia, Guinea, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia , Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Vietnam. There are unconfirmed reports of the Etruscan shrew in West and East Africa and in Armenia, Brunei, Indonesia, Kuwait and Uzbekistan.

The shrew is relatively rare, especially in Azerbaijan, Georgia , Jordan and Kazakhstan . Even where not endangered, its density is always lower than of the other shrews living in the area.

Habitat

The Etruscan shrew favors warm and damp habitats covered with shrubs, which it uses to hide from predators. It is usually confined to the foothills and lower belts of mountain ranges, though has been found up to 3,000 m above sea level. It colonizes riparian thickets along the banks of lakes and rivers, as well as human-cultivated areas . The shrew, however, avoids intensively cultivated areas, as well as dense forests and sand dunes. It is poorly adapted to digging burrows, so arranges its nests in various natural shelters, crevices and others uninhabited burrows.

Food

Because of its high ratio of surface area to body volume, the Etruscan shrew has an extremely fast metabolism and must eat 1.5–2.0 times its body weight in food per day. It feeds up to 25 times per day, mostly on various invertebrates , as well as small vertebrates , and can hunt prey of nearly the same body size as itself. It prefers species with a soft, thin exoskeleton, so avoids ants when given a choice. It kills large prey by a bite to the head and eating it immediately, but takes small insects back to its nest. When hunting, the Etruscan shrew mostly relies on its sense of touch rather than vision, and may even run into its food at night.

Predators

The largest threat to Etruscan shrews originates from human activities, particularly destruction of their nesting grounds and habitats as a result of farming. Etruscan shrews are also sensitive to weather changes, such as cold winters and dry periods. Major predators are birds of prey, especially owls.