Family SORICIDAE

(SHREWS)

• Minuscule to small quadrupedal carnivores with short limbs, slender bodies, pointed rostra, and cuspidate teeth.

• 5-30 cm.

• Holarctic, Indo-Malayan, Afrotropical, and Neotropical Regions.

• Typically moist areas with dense ground cover, from sea level to elevations of about 4000 m.

• 25 genera, 448 species, 628 taxa.

• 11 species Critically Endangered, 34 species Endangered, 24 species Vulnerable; none Extinct since 1600.