Bicolored shrew
Crocidura leucodon
The field shrew ( Crocidura leucodon ) is a mammal of the genus white tooth shrew ( Crocidura ) from the family of shrews. They colonized large parts of Europe and southwestern Asia.
Mark
The head -body length is 65 to 85 mm, tail length 28 to 43 mm and the weight 7-15 g The top is brown -gray, the sides and the bottom are sharp deposed white gray.
Dissemination
The distribution area of the field shrew includes Central and Southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia. In west-east direction extends the area of the type of the Brittany to the Caspian Sea, in the north-south direction of Schleswig -Holstein to the southern tip of Italy.
The south-western limit of distribution extends through central France. In other European countries the distribution is patchy. The species is absent in large parts of northern and northwestern Germany and the Netherlands, as it is absent in southern Bavaria, and in large parts of Austria and the Czech Republic. In Poland, it occurs only in the southeast.
Habitat
The field shrew inhabits forest-free, extensively used open habitats such as wastelands, derelict grassland, roadsides, fields and gardens from the plains to about 700 m altitude. The animals change seasonally in coverage richer and more humid terrain. Especially in the area of the northern limit of distribution, the species is closely related to human settlements; it is much more common than in small towns and villages in Poland in larger cities. For the rest area of the type of houses are visited for the winter especially.
Way of life
The diet consists mainly of insects and their larvae, harvestmen, spiders, millipedes and snails. The propagation is probably from April to September. The casts include 3-10 boy. The newly born young mice weigh about 1.0 g The eyes open at age 7-13 days; after 40 days the pups are self-employed. In their excursions the young mice are the typical of many eyelash shrews caravans, from the age of 7 days by hard biting at the tail of the animal front, from about the 14th to the 28th day through contact on this.
Inventory and risk
The field shrew is "endangered" in Germany because of its close ties to extensively managed, open habitats and the vulnerability of these habitats through intensification of use in the Red List as (Category 3) out. Recent studies, however, have at least done regionally to a more positive assessment of the risk, so the species was classified as safely in Bavaria in 2003. Even the world herd is IUCN as safely.