Potamogalinae

Big Otter Shrew ( Potamogale velox )

• Big Otter Shrew ( Potamogale )
• Small otter shrews ( Micropotamogale )

The otter shrews ( Potamogalinae ) are a subfamily of tenrecs ( Tenrecidae ). There are adapted to the marine life animals that go into the night swimming in search of food. As the only representative of the Tenreks they thus do not occur on Madagascar, but on the African mainland. The group includes three species in two genera, the Great Otter Shrew ( Potamogale velox ) and the two types of the Little Otter shrews ( Micropotamogale ), the dwarf (M. lamottei ) and the Ruwenzori otter shrew ( M. ruwenzorii ).

Description

Otter shrews have, as the name suggests, a remote resemblance to otters. Her body is streamlined, the muzzle broad and flattened. The body is covered by a dense undercoat, which is superimposed of rough over hairs. The coat is whitish at the top and dark brown on the bottom. The eyes are small, external ears are visible, the nostrils are closed in their dives. The tail is flattened and is used primarily for locomotion under water. The short legs that do not have webbed except for the Ruwenzori otter shrew, are not used for locomotion in water, but applied to the body. On land they move away on the soles. Large otter shrews reach a body length from 29 to 35 centimeters, the tail is again 24 to 29 inches long. My weight is around 340 to 400 grams. Small otter shrews reach a total length from 22 to 35 centimeters only half the size and are also much easier with around 135 grams.

Dissemination and habitat

Otter shrews are located in central and southern Africa, their range extends from Guinea and the northern Democratic Republic of Congo to Zambia and Angola. They live in rain forests and upland areas up to 1800 m in the area of lakes and rivers or muddy regions.

Life and reproduction

Otter shrews are fast and good swimmers. During the day they retire to burrows along the banks back, they pad with leaves and grasses. At night, they go in search of food. They are considered loners who do not come together except during the mating season with other conspecifics.

Large otter shrews feed primarily on crabs, which they find mainly by touch. Do they have a prey animal found, they swim ashore to get it to eat there. In addition, they also take fish and amphibians to himself. Small otter shrews eat mainly insect larvae, fish, mollusks, and small frogs that take them in the same way to him.

Little is known about the propagation of the otter shrews. While Big Otter shrews have two teats, and usually give birth to twins, the little otter shrews have four teats.

Threat

One of the dangers of Otter Shrews include the loss of habitat through deforestation and reduce water quality by construction activity. Add to that the hunt for their fur and the fact that sometimes they get caught in fishing nets and drown. The IUCN lists ways that dwarf otter shrew as endangered ( endangered ), as they inhabited only a small area of ​​west Africa, in which intensively mined diamonds and bauxite, making the habitat more and more restricted. The other two species, however, are not directly threatened.

System

Despite its name, otter shrews are related neither to the shrews nor with the otters, but also among the Tenreks. Mostly they are run as their subfamily, occasionally they also receive family status. Through fossils of Tenreks on the African continent and the discovery of the Little Otter shrews in the 1950s, which are structurally body between the Great Otter Shrew and Malagasy tenrecs, the Nahverwandtschaft is well documented.