What is the maximal age a Eurasian water shrew reaches?
An adult Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens) usually gets as old as 3 years.
Eurasian water shrews are around 21 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 167 grams (0.37 lbs) and measure 3 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Soricidae family (genus: Neomys), a Eurasian water shrew caries out around 6 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 2 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 8.1 cm (0′ 4″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
The Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens), known in the United Kingdom as the water shrew, is a relatively large shrew, up to 10 cm (4 in) long, with a tail up to three-quarters as long again. It has short, dark fur, often with a few white tufts, a white belly, and a few stiff hairs around the feet and tail. It lives close to fresh water, hunting aquatic prey in the water and nearby. Its fur traps bubbles of air in the water which greatly aids its buoyancy, but requires it to anchor itself to remain underwater for more than the briefest of dives.Like many shrews, the water shrew has venomous saliva, making it one of the few venomous mammals, although it is not able to puncture the skin of large animals, nor that of humans. Highly territorial, it lives a solitary life and is found throughout the northern part of Europe and Asia, from Britain to Korea.
Animals of the same family as a Eurasian water shrew
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Soricidae):
- Bottego’s shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Bates’s shrew bringing the scale to 16 grams
- Hildegarde’s shrew bringing the scale to 10 grams
- Transcaucasian water shrew getting as big as 8.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Johnston’s forest shrew bringing the scale to 3 grams
- Mount Cameroon forest shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Baird’s shrew bringing the scale to 8 grams
- Geata mouse shrew with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Least dwarf shrew bringing the scale to 4 grams
- Radde’s shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that reach the same age as Eurasian water shrew
With an average age of 3 years, Eurasian water shrew are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Southwestern water vole usually reaching 3.5 years
- Northern brown bandicoot usually reaching 3 years
- African pygmy mouse usually reaching 3.08 years
- Long-tailed pocket mouse usually reaching 2.5 years
- Merriam’s pocket mouse usually reaching 2.5 years
- Lutrine opossum usually reaching 3 years
- Northern short-tailed shrew usually reaching 2.75 years
- Red-tailed phascogale usually reaching 3 years
- New Guinean quoll usually reaching 3 years
- Bower’s white-toothed rat usually reaching 2.83 years
Animals with the same number of babies Eurasian water shrew
The same number of babies at once (6) are born by:
- Long-tailed weasel
- Flat-haired mouse
- Mindoro black rat
- Spotted ground squirrel
- Roborovski dwarf hamster
- White-eared opossum
- Bornean bearded pig
- Uinta chipmunk
- Townsend’s pocket gopher
- Bobak marmot
Weighting as much as Eurasian water shrew
A fully grown Eurasian water shrew reaches around 15 grams (0.03 lbs). So do these animals:
- Parti-coloured bat with 15 grams
- Wilson’s spiny mouse with 18 grams
- Bonda mastiff bat with 17 grams
- Slender-tailed dunnart with 17 grams
- Chinese shrew mole with 16 grams
- Russet free-tailed bat with 16 grams
- Rohu’s bat with 12 grams
- Glacier Bay water shrew with 14 grams
- Lesser hairy-winged bat with 13 grams
- Nelson’s pocket mouse with 15 grams
Animals as big as a Eurasian water shrew
Those animals grow as big as a Eurasian water shrew:
- Short-nosed harvest mouse with 7.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Gansu mole with 8.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Mexican long-tongued bat with 6.6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Little desert pocket mouse with 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Japanese dormouse with 7.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Large slit-faced bat with 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Moss-forest blossom bat with 6.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- White-footed mouse with 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Paratriaenops furculus with 6.7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Taiwanese brown-toothed shrew with 6.7 cm (0′ 3″)