Shrew

Shrews; Temporal range:
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Eulipotyphla
Family:	Soricidae; G. Fischer, 1814
Type genus
	Sorex;
Subfamilies
	Crocidurinae; Myosoricinae; Soricinae;

Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial 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. It is, in fact, a much closer relative of hedgehogs and moles; shrews are related to rodents only in that both belong to the Boreoeutheria magnorder. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, whereas rodents have gnawing front incisor teeth.

Shrews are distributed almost worldwide. Among the major tropical and temperate land masses, only New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and South America have no native shrews. However, as a result of the Great American Interchange, South America does have a relatively recently naturalised population, present only in the northern Andes.

The shrew family has 385 known species, making it the fourth-most species-diverse mammal family. The only mammal families with more species are the muroid rodent families (Muridae and Cricetidae) and the bat family Vespertilionidae. The shrew family also probably has the largest population of any mammal family: there are an estimated 100 billion shrews in the world, with an average of a few shrews per hectare of forest.^[2]

^ Hutterer R (2005). Wilson D, Reeder D (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.
^ Kurta, Allen (1995). Mammals of the Great Lakes Region. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. pp. 46–49. ISBN 978-0-472-06497-7.

[msw3-1] Hutterer R (2005). Wilson D, Reeder D (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.

[Kurta-2] Kurta, Allen (1995). Mammals of the Great Lakes Region. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. pp. 46–49. ISBN 978-0-472-06497-7.

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