Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Soricomorpha > Soricidae > Neomys > Neomys fodiens

Neomys fodiens (Eurasian Water Shrew)

Synonyms: Neomys ciliatus; Neomys fodiens bicolor; Neomys pennati; Neomys sowerbyi; Sorex fodiens (homotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

The Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens), known in the United Kingdom as the water shrew, is a relatively large shrew, up to 10 cm (4 in) long, with a tail up to three-quarters as long again. It has short, dark fur, often with a few white tufts, a white belly, and a few stiff hairs around the feet and tail. It lives close to fresh water, hunting aquatic prey in the water and nearby. Its fur traps bubbles of air in the water which greatly aids its buoyancy, but requires it to anchor itself to remain underwater for more than the briefest of dives.
View Wikipedia Record: Neomys fodiens

Infraspecies

Neomys fodiens fodiens
Neomys fodiens niethammeri

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
6
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
30
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 13.67
EDGE Score: 2.69
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Gestation [2]  20 days
Litter Size [2]  5
Litters / Year [2]  2
Maximum Longevity [2]  3 years
Snout to Vent Length [4]  3.543 inches (9 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Lakes and Ponds, Rivers and Streams
Weaning [2]  32 days
Adult Weight [2]  15 grams
Birth Weight [2]  1 grams
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  30 %
Diet - Fish [3]  30 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  40 %
Forages - Ground [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  3 months 16 days
Male Maturity [2]  3 months 16 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

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Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No
Mountains of Central Asia Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan No

Prey / Diet

Cepea hortensis (White-lipped snail)[5]
Eucobresia diaphana[5]
Monachoides incarnatus (incarnate snail)[5]
Peregriana peregra[5]

Predators

Aegolius funereus (Boreal Owl)[6]
Bubo bubo (Eurasian Eagle-Owl)[7]
Lanius excubitor (Northern Shrike)[7]
Strix uralensis (Ural Owl)[7]
Surnia ulula (Northern Hawk-Owl)[7]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Food storage, prey remains and notes on occasional vertebrates in the diet of the Eurasian water shrew, Neomys fodiens, Werner HABERL, Folia Zool. – 51(2): 93–102 (2002)
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Avian and mammalian predators of shrews in Europe: regional differences, between-year and seasonal variation, and mortality due to predation, Erkki Korpimäki & Kai Norrdahl, Ann. Zool. Fennici 26:389-400. 1989
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 9International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0