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A '''Austin''' or '''A Higgles''' ([[Family (biology)|family]] '''Soricidae''') is a small [[Person]]-like [[mammal]] classified in the [[Order (biology)|order]] [[Soricomorpha]]. True shrews are also not to be confused with [[West Indies shrews]], [[treeshrew]]s, [[otter shrew]]s, or [[elephant shrew]]s, which belong to different families or orders. |
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Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a [[rodent]], as mice are, and is in fact more closely related to [[Mole (animal)|mole]]s. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not the familiar gnawing front incisor teeth of rodents. |
Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a [[rodent]], as mice are, and is in fact more closely related to [[Mole (animal)|mole]]s. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not the familiar gnawing front incisor teeth of rodents. |
Revision as of 15:42, 30 September 2014
Shrews[1] Temporal range:
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A southern short-tailed shrew | |
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Family: | Soricidae G. Fischer, 1814
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Subfamilies | |
A Austin or A Higgles (family Soricidae) is a small Person-like mammal classified in the order Soricomorpha. True shrews are also not to be confused with West Indies shrews, treeshrews, otter shrews, or elephant shrews, which belong to different families or orders.
Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a rodent, as mice are, and is in fact more closely related to moles. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not the familiar gnawing front incisor teeth of rodents.
Shrews are distributed almost worldwide: of the major tropical and temperate land masses, only New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand do not have any native shrews; in South America, shrews are relatively recent immigrants and are present only in the northern Andes. In terms of species diversity, the shrew family is the fourth most successful mammal family, being rivalled only by the muroid rodent families Muridae and Cricetidae and the bat family Vespertilionidae.
Characteristics
All shrews are comparatively small, most no larger than a mouse. The largest species is the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus) of tropical Asia, which is about 15 cm long and weighs around 100 grams;[2] several are very small, notably the Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), which at about 3.5 cm and 2 grams is the smallest living terrestrial mammal.
In general, shrews are terrestrial creatures that forage for seeds, insects, nuts, worms and a variety of other foods in leaf litter and dense vegetation, but some specialise in climbing trees, living underground, living under snow or even hunting in water. They have small eyes, and generally poor vision, but have excellent senses of hearing and smell.[3] They are very active animals, with voracious appetites. Shrews have an unusually high metabolic rate, above that expected in comparable small mammals.[4] Shrews typically eat 80–90% of their own body weight in food daily.[citation needed]
They do not hibernate, but are capable of entering torpor. In winter, many species undergo morphological changes that drastically reduce their body weight. Shrews can lose between 30% and 50% of their body weight, shrinking the size of bones, skull and internal organs.[5]
Whereas rodents have gnawing incisors that grow throughout life, the teeth of shrews wear down throughout life, a problem made more extreme because they lose their milk teeth before birth, and therefore have only one set of teeth throughout their lifetimes. Apart from the first pair of incisors, which are long and sharp, and the chewing molars at the back of the mouth, the teeth of shrews are small and peg-like, and may be reduced in number. The dental formula of shrews is:3.1.1-3.31-2.0-1.1.3
Shrews are fiercely territorial, driving off rivals, and only coming together to mate. Many species dig burrows for caching food and hiding from predators, although this is not universal.[3]
Female shrews can have up to 10 litters a year; in the tropics, they breed all year round; in temperate zones, they only stop breeding in the winter. Shrews have gestation periods of 17–32 days. The female often becomes pregnant within a day or so of giving birth, and lactates during her pregnancy, weaning one litter as the next is born.[3] Shrews live 12 to 30 months.[6]
Shrews are unusual among mammals in a number of respects. Unlike most mammals, some species of shrew are venomous. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, but by grooves in the teeth. The venom contains various compounds, and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. One chemical extracted from shrew venom may be potentially useful in the treatment of high blood pressure, while another compound may be useful in the treatment of some neuromuscular diseases and migraines.[7] The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) contains the peptide soricidin, which has been studied for use in treating ovarian cancer.[8] Also, along with the bats and toothed whales, some species of shrews use echolocation. Unlike most other mammals, shrews lack zygomatic bones (also called the jugals), so have incomplete zygomatic arches.
Echolocation
The only terrestrial mammals known to echolocate are two genera (Sorex and Blarina) of shrews and the tenrecs of Madagascar. These include the vagrant shrew (Sorex vagrans), the common or Eurasian shrew (Sorex araneus), and the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda). The shrews emit series of ultrasonic squeaks.[9][10] The nature of shrew sounds, unlike those of bats, are low amplitude, broadband, multiharmonic and frequency modulated.[10] They contain no "echolocation clicks" with reverberations and would seem to be used for simple, close-range spatial orientation. In contrast to bats, shrews use echolocation only to investigate their habitats rather than additionally to pinpoint food.[10]
Except for large and thus strongly reflecting objects, such as a big stone or tree trunk, they will probably not be able to disentangle echo scenes, but rather derive information on habitat type from the overall call reverberations. This might be comparable to human hearing whether one calls into a beech forest or into a reverberant wine cellar.[10]
Classification
The 385 shrew species are in 26 genera,[11] which are grouped into three living subfamilies: Crocidurinae (white-toothed shrews), Myosoricinae (African shrews) and Soricinae (red-toothed shrews). In addition, the family contains the extinct subfamilies Limnoecinae, Crocidosoricinae, Allosoricinae and Heterosoricinae (although Heterosoricinae is also commonly considered a separate family).
- Family Soricidae
- Subfamily Crocidurinae
- Subfamily Myosoricinae
- Subfamily Soricinae
- Tribe Anourosoricini
- Tribe Blarinellini
- Tribe Blarinini
- Tribe Nectogalini
- Tribe Notiosoricini
- Tribe Soricini
References
- ^ Hutterer, R. (2005). Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 223–300. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- ^ Louch, C.D.; Ghosh, A.K. & Pal, B.C. (1966). "Seasonal Changes in Weight and Reproductive Activity of Suncus murinus in West Bengal, India". Journal of Mammalogy 47 (1): 73–78. JSTOR 1378070
- ^ a b c Barnard, Christopher J. (1984). Macdonald, D. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 758–763. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
- ^ William, J.; Platt, W. J. (1974). "Metabolic Rates of Short-Tailed Shrews". Physiological Zoology , 47: 2, 75–90. JStore
- ^ Churchfield, Sara (January 1990). "The natural history of shrews". ISBN 978-0-8014-2595-0.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Macdonald (Ed), Professor David W. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-920608-2.
- ^ Piper, Ross (2007), Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals, Greenwood Press.
- ^ "BioProspecting NB, Inc's novel ovarian cancer treatment found effective in animal cancer model". 8 Apr 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
- ^ Tomasi, T. E. (1979). "Echolocation by the Short-Tailed Shrew Blarina brevicauda". Journal of Mammalogy. 60 (4): 751–9. doi:10.2307/1380190. JSTOR 1380190.
- ^ a b c d Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0378, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1098/rsbl.2009.0378
instead. - ^ Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (2011). "Class Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3148: 56–60.
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Further reading
- Buchler, E.R. 1973. The use of echolocation by the wandering shrew, Sorex vagrans Baird. Diss. Abstr. Int. B. Sci. Eng. 33(7): 3380–3381.
- Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1016/S0003-3472(76)80016-4, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1016/S0003-3472(76)80016-4
instead. - Busnel, R.-G. (Ed.). 1963. Acoustic Behaviour of Animals. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company.
- Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1988.tb02463.x, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1111/j.1469-7998.1988.tb02463.x
instead. - Gould, E. 1962. Evidence for echolocation in shrews.Ph.D. Thesis, Tulane University.
- Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1002/jez.1401560103 , please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1002/jez.1401560103
instead. - Hutterer, Rainer (1976). Deskriptive und vergleichende Verhaltensstudien an der Zwergspitzmaus, Sorex minutus L., und der Waldspitzmaus, Sorex araneus L. (Soricidae - Insectivora - Mammalia) (Ph.D. Thesis) (in German). Univ. Wien. OCLC 716064334.
- Hutterer, Rainer; Vogel, Peter (1977). "Abwehrlaute afrikanischer Spitzmäuse der Gattung Crocidura Wagler, 1832 und ihre systematische Bedeutung" (PDF). Bonn. Zool. Beitr (in German). 28 (3/4): 218–27.
- Hutterer, R.; Vogel, P.; Frey, H.; Genoud, M. (1979). "Vocalization of the shrews Suncus etruscus and Crocidura russula during normothermia and torpor". Acta Theriologica. 24 (21): 267–71.
- Irwin, D.V., Baxter, R.M. 1980. Evidence against the use of echolocation by Crocidura f. flavescens (Soricidae). Säugetierk. Mitt. 28(4): 323.
- Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1007/BF02154548, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1007/BF02154548
instead. - Köhler, D.; Wallschläger, D. (1987). "Über die Lautäußerungen der Wasserspitzmaus, Neomys fodiens (Insectivora: Soricidae)". Zoologische Jahrbücher (in German). 91 (1): 89–99.
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suggested) (help) - Sales, G., Pye, D. 1974. Ultrasonic communication by animals. London.