Shrews
General Features
Shrews are small mouse like creatures, they belong to the family Soricidae. They are the second most diversified mammal in the world (the first being humans). In fact they live on every major landmass in the world except for Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica, and some areas of the pacific island. Shrews are over 32 million years old and they are still very primitive and have not changed much since then, there most primal feature is the way that there foot is shaped. They are very energetic creatures and burn of calories extremely fast. Consequentially they must eat 175% of there body weight each day. They also have irregular sleeping patterns, many are nocturnal and some even take fifteen minute micro naps through out the day. Shrews heart beat is very fast due to there size. There average heart beat is 800 beats per minute but it can get up to 1,200 (400 beats per minute would kill a human).
Shrews are small mouse like creatures, they belong to the family Soricidae. They are the second most diversified mammal in the world (the first being humans). In fact they live on every major landmass in the world except for Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica, and some areas of the pacific island. Shrews are over 32 million years old and they are still very primitive and have not changed much since then, there most primal feature is the way that there foot is shaped. They are very energetic creatures and burn of calories extremely fast. Consequentially they must eat 175% of there body weight each day. They also have irregular sleeping patterns, many are nocturnal and some even take fifteen minute micro naps through out the day. Shrews heart beat is very fast due to there size. There average heart beat is 800 beats per minute but it can get up to 1,200 (400 beats per minute would kill a human).
Shrews are often confused with rodents, but they are actually very different from them. The main difference is that shrews don't have the characteristic Zygomatic arch that all rodents have. Shrews do look a lot like mice but they are actually more closely related to moles.
Young Shrews
A Shrew is born in a litter of up to seven other shrews. Shrews will mate multiple times in one year, a male shrew may mate up to twelve times in one spring (spring is the mating season of shrews). The gestation period of shrews is very short, only 10-25 days. Shrews grow at very rapid rates, especially in the first 1-15 days. At only sixteen days they develop there eye sight which is really early for small mammals. At eighteen day they start exploring the outside nest. And at twenty two days they can eat live food. Baby shrews are very vulnerable and don't have a complete chance of survival, they will often be killed by stronger young shrews, or even more likely, they won't get enough food due to large litters.
A Shrew is born in a litter of up to seven other shrews. Shrews will mate multiple times in one year, a male shrew may mate up to twelve times in one spring (spring is the mating season of shrews). The gestation period of shrews is very short, only 10-25 days. Shrews grow at very rapid rates, especially in the first 1-15 days. At only sixteen days they develop there eye sight which is really early for small mammals. At eighteen day they start exploring the outside nest. And at twenty two days they can eat live food. Baby shrews are very vulnerable and don't have a complete chance of survival, they will often be killed by stronger young shrews, or even more likely, they won't get enough food due to large litters.
Shrew-Human Relationship
Although only a small amount of people know about shrew they actually have a fair amount of myths surrounding them. In the seventeenth century people believed that shrews were vicious creatures that tricked people by being all cute and innocent and would then bite them with there poisonous teeth. If you let cattle graze in a field infested by shrews then they would die, and if a shrew ran over a sleeping cow then the cow would be paralyzed. These myths are not true of course, shrews cannot kill cows, and though some shrews have narcotic saliva there bite is not poisonous. These myths did have some hold on the people of those times though. There were many recipes that would protect people from shrews, one called for a shrews body to be stuffed into a lime and then that to be put around a cows neck to protect the animal. Even the scientific name for the common shrew, araneus, means spider after its supposed poisonous bite. On the other side of the myths people believed that shrews were feeble creatures that could easily be killed from shock. They thought that if a shrew crossed paths with a human it would most definitely die. Naturalist from that time studied shrews and recorded that they died very quickly and were very week. This is most likely because they were not aware of how much food a shrew has to consume daily.
In modern times people still have a lot of interactions with shrews. They are commonly considered pests. They do have many down sides when they are in a home, they produce a lot of feces because of there voracious apatite. They do carry multiple diseases that humans can get, none are terminal but they are still dangerous. Shrews do have positive effects as well, in England because shrews eat so fast they are used for pest control. An example of this is with the European pine sawfly. They cause wide spread damage to conifer plantations and can destroy whole fields. But they lay their larvae in the soil and shrews scavenge through and eat almost whole populations of them.
Although only a small amount of people know about shrew they actually have a fair amount of myths surrounding them. In the seventeenth century people believed that shrews were vicious creatures that tricked people by being all cute and innocent and would then bite them with there poisonous teeth. If you let cattle graze in a field infested by shrews then they would die, and if a shrew ran over a sleeping cow then the cow would be paralyzed. These myths are not true of course, shrews cannot kill cows, and though some shrews have narcotic saliva there bite is not poisonous. These myths did have some hold on the people of those times though. There were many recipes that would protect people from shrews, one called for a shrews body to be stuffed into a lime and then that to be put around a cows neck to protect the animal. Even the scientific name for the common shrew, araneus, means spider after its supposed poisonous bite. On the other side of the myths people believed that shrews were feeble creatures that could easily be killed from shock. They thought that if a shrew crossed paths with a human it would most definitely die. Naturalist from that time studied shrews and recorded that they died very quickly and were very week. This is most likely because they were not aware of how much food a shrew has to consume daily.
In modern times people still have a lot of interactions with shrews. They are commonly considered pests. They do have many down sides when they are in a home, they produce a lot of feces because of there voracious apatite. They do carry multiple diseases that humans can get, none are terminal but they are still dangerous. Shrews do have positive effects as well, in England because shrews eat so fast they are used for pest control. An example of this is with the European pine sawfly. They cause wide spread damage to conifer plantations and can destroy whole fields. But they lay their larvae in the soil and shrews scavenge through and eat almost whole populations of them.