Which differ from each other not only in habitat, but also in size. These are small animals, the distinctive features of which are a long tail and an elongated muzzle.
Body size can range from 5 to 10 cm, depending on the variety. Tail - from 3.5 to 7.5 cm. Weight - from 2.5 to 15 grams.
The entire body is covered with fine, dark-colored fur, brownish-gray in most species. The abdomen is light. The tail is covered with thick short fur.
Tops of teeth have brownish red color - thanks to this, the animal got its name. However, the older the shrew, the more its teeth wear down, and this color may gradually disappear. Dental formula of a shrew: incisors 3/2, canines 1/0, premolars 3/1, molars 3/3.
The ears are small, almost do not protrude above the surface of the coat. The eyes are black, but due to the predominantly underground lifestyle, vision is poor and poorly developed.
As a result, the animal searches for food using a powerful sense of smell or echolocation.
Shrews - one of the oldest branches of mammals, and their teeth have a clear division into canines, incisors, and molars.
REFERENCE! All animals of this species have a strong smell of musk, which is why many predators, having caught a shrew, refuse to eat it and throw it away.
The animal's prints are shallow, small, and usually arranged in pairs. When there is no hard crust on the snow, a clearly visible imprint of the tail remains.
Distribution and reproduction
Shrews are common in many countries. They are most often found in North America, northern Asia, and Europe.
This is the most common species that can live in any conditions - forests, forest-steppes, tundra, sometimes even in the floodplains of steppe rivers and meadows. Does not settle in wetlands.
About 15 species live on the territory of Russia, which are quite difficult to distinguish from each other (read about where the shrew lives and what it eats). The main features here are the details of the body structure and genitals.
They live everywhere, from Moscow to the Primorsky Territory and Sakhalin.
In the taiga zone, the normal number of animals is in the range of 200-600 individuals per hectare, in the tundra - 3-5 times less.
The average life expectancy of a shrew is 1-1.5 years. It begins to reproduce in the second year, immediately after the end of the winter period.
Creates nests in the form of a ball of plant stems, which is located under the stumps and roots of trees. Pregnancy lasts on average 20 days.
Young individuals leave the nest on the 20th day after birth. During the season, the shrew leaves 3 litters, and in the first there are 8-10 cubs, and in the last - only 3-4. The second litter appears after the grown individuals from the first leave the nest.
Lifestyle
Shrews active throughout the year, and they endure the winter without plunging into a long hibernation. During the day, they carry out most of their activity at dusk and at night.
Although the animal enters genus, it does not build holes on its own, but uses ready-made labyrinths of underground animals, moles, natural cracks and holes in the ground.
They can trample passages under the forest floor and in thick snow (passage diameter 2 cm).
In winter, they practically do not rise from under the snow, but if it is impossible to dig out insect larvae from the frozen soil, they move along the surface in search of plant seeds.
REFERENCE! If there is no food, it dies within a few hours.
The shrew has a very high metabolic rate - it eats up to 150% of its body weight, 15 grams of animal food or 20 grams of fish per day.
The frequency of food intake depends on the size - the smaller the animal, the more often it needs to eat. For example, a tiny shrew must eat 78 times a day!
During winter, the amount of seeds and plant foods in the diet increases. There are known cases of creating reserves for this time from earthworms.
Also, for a successful winter, there are innate protective processes - in the autumn there is a serious decrease in body weight and its volume, which includes all internal organs, including the brain.
In the spring, before the onset of the breeding season, the body returns to normal size.
Photo
See below: shrew photo
Distinctive features from other rodents
Shrew often confused with mice. Their main differences are small eyes, a long elongated muzzle with inconspicuous ears, and a reddish tint to the teeth.
Benefits and harms
Shrews are predominantly insectivorous animals, and therefore usually do not damage agricultural crops.
However they can in winter sneak into houses, barns, sheds to search for food, both plant (seeds) and larvae of sleeping insects.
Some farmers believe that the shrew is the reason for the large number of minks appearing on lawns or beds. But this animal cannot dig them on its own, since its paws are not designed for digging!
At the same time, thanks to the constant search for food, the animal destroys a huge number of insect pests, including those overwintering in the litter and in the top layer of soil.
Her basic diet consists of worms, larvae, spiders, woodlice, including such pests as slugs, May beetles, mole crickets, leaf beetles, weevils, moth caterpillars and cutworms.
In case of severe hunger, the shrew attacks ground beetles or small mice.
IMPORTANT! If the desire to get rid of an animal on the site still exceeds the benefit it can bring, it is best to use non-fatal methods - for example, ultrasonic repellers.
It does more good than harm to large farmlands. But small gardens can suffer from this animal. We have prepared an article about gardening and summer cottages.
Conclusion
Shrews- These are small animals from the shrew family. They are common in many parts of the world; in Russia they live almost throughout the entire territory. They do not build their own passages using ready-made underground passages of other animals.
They feed on insects and their larvae bring great benefits home and farming. The harvest can only begin in the event of a severe shortage of food.
Useful video
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The shrew is a type of shrew. It is very often confused with a mouse, but the shrew, unlike this rodent, has a narrow and elongated muzzle. This animal is not harmful, and even helps people fight insects. There are many species of such animals, among which the common shrew can be named. You will learn about it and other common varieties of shrews right now.
Scientists have counted approximately 130 species of shrews. They are united by the presence of a characteristic elongated muzzle and a long tail. The body size of an adult individual can be 5 - 10 cm, and the tail - from 3.5 to 7.5 cm. Such an animal weighs from 2.5 grams to a maximum of 15. Its body is covered with dark fur. Most of the species have naturally received a fine fur coat of a brownish-gray color. The animal also has a light belly. The animal got its name due to the brownish-red colored tops of its teeth. As they grow older, the shade of the teeth wears off to a lighter shade, and the shrew may at this time be called a shrew. Dental formula of a shrew: incisors 3/2, canines 1/0, premolars 3/1, molars 3/3. The animal also has small black eyes by nature and cannot boast of good eyesight. A strong sense of smell or special echolocation helps him search for food. Due to the fact that these ancient mammals smell of musk, many predators, having caught them, do not want to eat and release them.
Video “Description of the animal”
From the video you will learn the distinctive characteristics of this animal.
Types of rodents
More than a hundred species of rodents belonging to the shrew family are known. To be able to distinguish between them, let’s look at some in more detail.
Ordinary
This type of shrew is the most common in our country. Its body length is 6–9 cm. It has dark fur, small eyes and ears. It prefers to live in deciduous forests and where different types of trees grow. 
Develops active activity at night. Eats some types of insects, larvae, frogs, earthworms, and seeds. Capable of stealing eggs of nun butterflies and paired silkworms. If she is hungry, she will not disdain carrion. Every year the female brings 3 broods. There are up to 10 babies in each litter. The lifespan of an ordinary species does not exceed 1.5 years.
Little shrew (American)
The small shrew, whose homeland is considered to be North America, received the name Sorex hoyi from the name of the American doctor-naturalist Philip Hoy. It is also possible to see in the USA and Canada, where they choose forests with deciduous and coniferous trees for living. The length of an adult does not exceed 5 cm. A dwarf mouse weighs no more than 2.5 grams. 
Its fur is colored red-brown or gray-brown. In winter, fur tends to lighten.
This rodent is active all day and all year round.
It feeds on worms, insects, and invertebrates. Its enemies in natural conditions are snakes, birds, and among domestic animals - cats. Representatives of the species begin to reproduce in the first months of summer. Pregnancy lasts 18 days. Over the course of a year, a baby shrew is capable of producing 1 litter, which can contain 3–8 babies.
Tiny
The tiny shrew is found in an area ranging from the Scandinavian countries to the Far East, also on the island of Sakhalin. She also lives in Russia. In the northern regions, the animal settles up to the border that connects the forest-tundra with the tundra. It is on the pages of the Red Book of the Murmansk Region. The tiny shrew has a body length of about 5 cm. The weight of an adult does not exceed 4 grams. It has a rather wide head with a characteristic proboscis. 
This type of rodent has the shortest tail when compared with other representatives of the shrew family. The fur is brown or dark brown; the mouse's belly is light gray. Lives in forests where various trees grow. Settles near swamps, tundra, steppes and semi-deserts. Eats insects, their larvae, and spiders up to 80 times a day! It gives birth to several litters per year, each of which produces up to 8 babies.
Small
You can find such a small mouse, but with a long tail, in Russia and in many European countries. It grows up to 6 cm, weighing no more than 5 grams. The fur color ranges from brown to red, the belly is much lighter, and the proboscis is quite long. Lives in damp places, forests, but not particularly shaded. Eats insects, worms, spiders. Active around the clock. Breeds during 3 summer months. Brings several litters, each containing 4–12 cubs.
Average
The average shrew can catch the eye of a person in the territory from Eastern Europe to Mongolia, Korea, and the Far East. The average shrew has a body length of no more than 7.5 cm and a weight of about 7.5 cm. The upper body is colored brown, which can turn into red. Eats insects, larvae, spiders, earthworms, and beetles. In winter, it is important for her to find larch seeds. The average shrew breeds in warm weather; each litter can produce 2–11 babies.
Gigantic
The giant shrew is found exclusively in the Primorsky Territory. It can be found on the pages of the Red Book of Russia. The body length of this largest rodent in the family reaches 7–10 cm, and such an animal weighs about 14 grams. 
The coat has a characteristic gray-brown color, and there are long whiskers on the muzzle. The giant shrew feeds mainly on earthworms, which make up 95% of its diet. He also loves to eat small rodents, and also eats snakes, frogs, and fruits. Brings 1 offspring per year. There is no data on the number of cubs. The mouse can live up to 1.5 years.
Equal-toothed
The equal-toothed shrew has a uniform coat color and a fifth upper tooth. Lives in the taiga area, from Scandinavia to the Pacific Ocean, and is also found in Belarus. This rodent is included in the Red Book of Karelia and the Moscow Region due to the threat of extinction. Grows up to 9 cm, weighs no more than 6.5 grams. The equal-toothed shrew feeds on insects and larvae, and in winter on seeds of deciduous crops and spruce. It begins to reproduce in late spring, producing several litters of 2–10 babies. The lifespan is up to 1.5 years.
Flat-skull (brown)
The coat color of an adult varies from dark on the back to light on the sides and gray-white in the abdomen. It is found in the territory from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean. Lives in taiga, tundra, mountains. The diet is similar to other species - insects, larvae, earthworms. It breeds in the warm season. Brings up to 8 – 10 babies at a time.
Arctic (tundra)
The Arctic shrew, also known as the tundra shrew, has a body size of 48–75 mm and weighs no more than 9 grams. In the northern parts of the range there are individuals with two-color coloring, while in the southern parts the color is close to monochromatic. The habitat of the tundra species covers North-Eastern Europe, Asia south to China and Mongolia, North America, Russia up to Chukotka. It can thrive in the Arctic tundra, forest-tundra, lowland, mountain taiga, forest-steppe and steppe. It feeds on small invertebrates, in particular beetles. Occasionally eats earthworms. Breeds in summer. Every year it produces up to 4 litters of 5–11 babies.
Distribution and reproduction
As has already been described above by species, shrews live in many countries of the world. Equal teeth are most often found in the northeast and west of the region. You can also see such animals on river banks. Representatives of the middle species are found in coniferous forests.
Tiny shrews live only in the taiga forests of our country, and small ones live in forests, wastelands and even in populated areas.
The common shrew is a common inhabitant of wetlands on the banks of rivers and lakes. 
Shrews create spherical nests from leaves and crop stems. During the year they have 2 - 3 offspring, in which from 2 to 10 babies are born. They begin to actively reproduce in the summer; pregnancy lasts 18–28 days. They are born naked and blind. The young animals become independent after 3–4 weeks.
Benefits and harms
Shrews are beneficial because, thanks to their fast metabolism, they are able to feed up to 80 times a day and destroy many harmful insects. In summer, animals cannot live longer than 11 hours without food. In a day they are able to consume an amount of food that exceeds their weight by 6 times. An adult shrew eats at least 15 grams of insects per day. 
The tiny shrew is a mammal of the shrew family of the order of insectivores, similar to a small mouse. The tiny animal got its name from the word “brown”, since the tops of the creature’s teeth really differ in this unusual color.
Habitat
You can meet shrews almost everywhere; often more than three species of these animals live simultaneously in one area. For example, in the Moscow region there are as many as six species of shrews: common shrew, small and medium shrew, tiny shrew, equal-toothed shrew and shrew.
Equal-toothed shrubs are found along creeks and river banks, just like the common shrew - they are great lovers of dampness. The medium and tiny shrews are among the rarest species, preferring coniferous and taiga forests. The small shrew and common shrew live in open areas - in steppes, meadows, and woodlands.
The shrew is unpretentious in terms of comfortable living conditions, but an abundance of food all year round is a necessary condition for it. It is not possible for a small animal to travel long distances in search of food, and it is not able to survive without food for more than 3-4 hours.
Characteristic
The tiny shrew is one of the smallest insectivorous creatures in Russia and Europe. The size of an adult individual including the tail is 6-7 cm, and the weight does not exceed five grams. It would be more correct to describe the tiny shrew with the silky fur of a soft coffee color on the back, which turns into light fluff on the belly. The tail, which is slightly more than half the length of the shrew's body, is also two-colored. The paws are not covered with fur.
In summer, the color of the animal fades slightly, and in winter it becomes richer. The animal's ears are small, but hearing is very well developed, as is touch and sense of smell. The elongated head ends in a proboscis nose with bristling vibrissae (long whiskers).
Shrews do not live more than a year and a half, and approximately a fifth of this short life is spent during their breeding season. Unlike most animals, the female's gestation period is not strictly fixed. The cubs will be born healthy in both 18 and 28 days. The average number of babies per litter is about five, but sometimes there are 8. During her life, an adult female gives birth to from 1 to two litters.
Lifestyle
The high vital activity of the tiny shrew is due to the constant search for food. At least 70 times during the day, the animal’s activity stops for a short time - a 10-15 minute nap. Then the bustle resumes.
To maintain normal functioning, a tiny shrew must consume an amount of food twice its body weight. In the warm season, intensive searches for food are carried out throughout the entire territory that the animal is able to cover in short dashes: in trees, in the soil. In winter, the search is carried out exclusively on the ground, and the animal navigates under the snow just as well as in open space.
Shrews willingly eat all living things that are smaller than themselves, but in the cold season they do not disdain the waste of their own kind and other large animals. During particularly hungry times, adult shrews calmly include the cubs of their fellow tribesmen in their diet.
In winter, shrews do not hibernate, but it is almost impossible to see them on the surface of the snow cover. Due to their overly bright colors, animals leave snowy areas only in situations of extreme necessity and when they are very hungry. This precaution could be called unnecessary, since the strong specific smell of the animal discourages predators from hunting, if not for owls - the only representatives of the predatory fauna who are not so whimsical.
Another interesting fact is that the tiny shrew maintains the highest body temperature at any time of the year compared to all mammals on the planet - from 40 0 C.
Most animals of this species live in the taiga - on average 350-400 shrews per 1 hectare, but in other areas of their habitat the existence of tiny creatures is under threat. In the Murmansk region, the tiny shrew is listed in the Red Book.
In the forest-tundra it dominates over all shrews, and in a typical tundra it is the only representative of the shrew genus, but its numbers there are extremely low.
The top is gray, almost without a brownish tint. Unlike the average shrew, the tail is without a tassel.
A medium-sized shrew: overwintered animals have a body length of 70-80 mm, body weight 7.5-10.2 g. The fur color of overwintered individuals is bright, two-color. The dark saddle cloth is very well defined on the back. The sides and belly are white or light gray. In young animals, the saddle is usually less distinct; their coloration resembles that of young common shrews.
In the forest-tundra it dominates over all shrews, and in a typical tundra it is the only representative of the shrew genus, but its numbers there are extremely low. The basis of nutrition is beetles. In the northernmost parts of the range their role is greatest. It also eats other invertebrates.
Inhabits Kamchatka, Chukotka and the Northern Kuril Islands in floodplain forests, shrub tundras, and among mountain dwarf trees.