Shrew

A shrew or shrew mouse or true shrew (family Soricidae) is a small mammal classified in the order Soricomorpha. Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a rodent and not closely related to rodents. Shrew feet have five toes; rodent feet have four. True shrews are also not to be confused with West Indies shrews, treeshrews, otter shrews, or elephant shrews, which belong to different orders. Shrews ar... more

A shrew or shrew mouse or true shrew (family Soricidae) is a small mammal classified in the order Soricomorpha. Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a rodent and not closely related to rodents. Shrew feet have five toes; rodent feet have four. True shrews are also not to be confused with West Indies shrews, treeshrews, otter shrews, or elephant shrews, which belong to different orders. Shrews are distributed almost worldwide: of the major tropical and temperate land masses, only New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand do not have native shrews at all; in South America, shrews are relatively recent immigrants and are present only in the far north. In terms of species diversity, the shrew family is the fourth most successful of the mammal families, being rivalled only by the muroid families Muridae and Cricetidae and the bat family Vespertilionidae. All shrews are comparatively small, most no more than mouse size. The largest species is... less