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|  » Stats |
Members: 50,157
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Top Poster: glsammy (15,069)
| | Welcome to our newest member, Ye Olde Justin | |  | | 
21-03-2011, 05:13 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Shropshire
Posts: 2,599
| | | Swimming Shrew
No pic - the shrew moved like lightning - but what it did was enter the stream about twenty yards up from where I was sitting, then swim underwater till it was past me and round the corner out of sight.
Would a common or pygmy shrew do this, or was it most likely a water shrew? I couldn't even tell you what colour it was, but I know it was a shrew because of the way it moved. It left a lovely trail of silver bubbles as it went. |
21-03-2011, 05:17 PM
| | Knight Grand Cross of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 13,610
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
Most mammals can swim, but the behaviour you describe does sound like that of a Water Shrew to me. |
21-03-2011, 05:28 PM
|  | Member of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: South Coast
Posts: 290
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
I would say your description is typical behaviour for the Water shrew. I did a few years back see a Common shrew swim, just a few feet across a water course when it was frightened by the sound/motion of a strimmer. It swam with a jerky movement and with its head held high. Can't imagine Common or Pymy shrews swimming below the surface. |
21-03-2011, 05:34 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Shropshire
Posts: 2,599
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
That's great. Are there any field signs I could look for? |
21-03-2011, 05:48 PM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Near Peterborough
Posts: 7,106
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
Sounds like a water shrew to me too  it's a record worth submitting too I think.
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....I love not man the less, but Nature more.... |
21-03-2011, 06:01 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Shropshire
Posts: 2,599
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
Will do. |
21-03-2011, 06:10 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Cromford, Derbyshire Dales
Posts: 1,019
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
Hi ya
If you have a look at my really dreadful movie clip on YouTube YouTube - Water Shrew it may give you a clue. In the water they are fast, very fast and have a silvery grey look, out of water they look so much darker - and they still move like lightning! The ones I have seen mainly dive from the edge of the water into the silt looking for food. When moving from one location to another they stuck close to the bank and paused every few seconds - usually in a water vole hole!
Shirl |
21-03-2011, 06:16 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Shropshire
Posts: 2,599
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
That looks a LOT like what I saw. Thanks. Shirl. What made me hesitate though was that I thought I'd heard they only liked living in cress beds or something. |
21-03-2011, 06:18 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Cromford, Derbyshire Dales
Posts: 1,019
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
That's a favourable habitat for them, the ones I see at the canal live alongside the water voles, varied vegetation, stone walls in places and lots of lovely silt just stuffed full of invertebrates. That's usually what you see first, swirling mud!
Shirl
PS Just popped a couple of wv pics in the Gallery from today |
21-03-2011, 06:22 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Cromford, Derbyshire Dales
Posts: 1,019
| | | Re: Swimming Shrew
Quote:
Originally Posted by vole-woman  That's great. Are there any field signs I could look for? | Forgot to add, if you can locate any scats and disect them there should be a lot of invertebrate material in there, burrow holes can be up to about 2 cm in diameter, I ususally record holes less than 2cm when I do my wv surveys, could just about be a field vole but may well be shrew.
SHirl | | | |
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