The Elephant Shrew by Michael

This is my article about the amazingly fascinating ani-mal, please read it. The paragraphs of my article are physical characteristics, habitat, food/predators/movement, life cycle and fun facts.

Legs, Tails and Heads Small, fast, big trunk, is it an elephant, is it a shrew? No, it’s an elephant shrew. These interesting creatures appear to be put together from parts of other animals, with rat like tails, antelope like legs, anteater like tongue, carnivore like teeth and an elephant like trunk/nose. Unlike the elephant however, the elephant shrew has no tusk or horns. One of the species, the Golden Rump Elephant Shrew weighs 540 grams and has a distinctive patch of golden fur on its butt. Other shrews have light gray to dark brown fur. The fur is probably this color to

blend in with its surround-ings. This is called camou-flage. The elephant shrew has good hearing, probably to alert its self for preda-tors.

We Live, Here?From deserts to rain

forests, elephant shrews live nearly everywhere in South Africa. Unfortu-nately the elephant shrew lives only in South Africa and the tips of the sur-rounding countries. Some countries eat elephant shrews because they have nothing else to eat so the shrews don’t live there. Elephant shrews make their home by burrowing under ground and in dead leaves. Even though the elephant shrew has these burrows they do not hibernate. The elephant shrew also has neighbors, including lions, hyenas, and birds of prey.

Lunch, Brunch and Dinner

Welcome to the world of eat or be eaten. Learn

Short eared elephant shrews

Brown= where elephant shrews live

A black and rufous elephant shrew.

about what the elephant shrew eats and what eats the elephant shrew. The elephant shrew being an omnivore eats grasshop-pers, spiders, beetles and the larger species eat small lizards. The elephant shrew gets its food by foraging on the ground for 80% of the day, because the elephant shrew runs constantly from danger it needs to eat a lot. The elephant shrew’s predators are cobras, eagles and hawks. When faced with danger the elephant shrew does not defend its self, it runs. When it runs, diner usually gets away be-cause the elephant shrew can run up to twenty five kilometers per hour. When it runs from danger it hops like an antelope on its two back legs.

I’m Alive, I’m Dead From birth to death, elephant shrews have amazing life cycles. Ele-phant shrews mate year round, but they don’t mate often. When they do they have 1 To 3 babies at a

time. The mom is pregnant for 45 to 60 days. Newborn babies drink their mother’s milk. They stay with the parents for one week. Once they are one week old they get kick out of the territory. After that they live four to five years. Out of 15 species three are endangered, the Golden rump ele-phant shrew, the Yellow rump elephant shrew and the Black and Rufous ele-phant shrew.

Fun FactsOkwehavefoundoutwhatelephantshrewseatwheretheyliveandwhattheylooklike.Nowletmetellyousomeinterestingfactsabouttheelephantshrew.Factone,elephantshrewsarealsoknowasjumpingshrews.TheirBantuname(oneofSouthAfrica’sofDiciallanguages)issengi.Facttwo,somescientiststhinkthatele‐phantshrewsarerelatedtochimpanzeestheyarethatsmart!

a short eared elephant shrew

Bibliography Michael

The Encyclopedia of AnimalsOwen, JohnWeldon Owen, Inc.San Francisco 1993

Wikipediawww.wikipedia.org/wiki/elephant-shrew4/20/2010

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