Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2014 | Page 72

COUNTRY LIFE

Spotting a shrew...
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Gift to Nature is responsible for a variety of conservation sites
around the Island, it is their mission to not only care for the
Island’s wildlife but encourage everyone to get out and explore
our fantastic countryside.

ext time you’re visiting one of
the Gift to Nature sites take a
moment to listen, rather than
look, for the smallest mammal
in Britain – the Pygmy Shrew (sorex
minutus). Its presence will more often
than not be revealed by its high-pitched
chatter and squeaking.
The Pygmy Shrew is one of three types
of British shrew, along with Common
Shrew and Water Shrew. Its body is only
40 - 60mm long, although add on to that
a tail length of almost its body length
again. Weighing in at 2.5 to 6 grams that's
the equivalent, at most, of a 10p piece.
Pygmy Shrews are out and about both in
the day and at night, presumably because
when you need to eat the equivalent of
125 per cent of your body weight in a day
you haven't time to rest on your laurels!
Spiders and insects make up a shrew's
main diet, and in turn shrews are often
on the menu for owls, foxes, and weasels.
Cats are another predator, although they
apparently never eat the body due to a
foul taste produced from a shrew's scent
glands. Sadly people's litter can prove fatal
too; shrews can easily become trapped
in discarded drink bottles and cans, as
their natural inquisitiveness leads them to
investigate.
As previously mentioned you're most
likely to hear a Pygmy Shrew before
you spot it amongst the undergrowth
or verges, shrieking and squabbling as
it proclaims its territory. Unless it is the
breeding season, shrews are solitary
creatures, and strongly defend their
'patch' which can be anything up to a
range of 2,000 square metres.
They produce two litters of up to seven
young in the summer months, and the
young leave the nest after just 22 days. No
time to waste, when your life span might
only be a year.
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Like some other shrews, the Pygmy
Shrew has red-tipped teeth due to iron
deposits in the enamel which harden the
teeth against the constant wear and tear.
This protection is essential because, unlike
a rodent, a shrew's teeth do not re-grow,
and a shrew that is unable to eat is very
soon a deceased shrew.
Pygmy Shrews are protected under
the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Why

not take a walk along the Troll Trail at
Merstone, vis it Pan Mill Meadows at
Newport or stroll through One Horse Field
at Totland and keep your ears and eyes
alert for this delightful little creature.
Gift to Nature manages a range of
conservation sites across the Island. For
further information visit gifttonature.org.
uk or www.facebook.com/gifttonature