Pygmy white-toothed shrew
Suncus etruscus
Lorenzo Giulivi · Collazzone PG
Key facts in one look
- Size
- 33–50 mm, 1.2–2.7 g
- Diet
- Insectivore, eats 1.5–2 times its weight a day
- Status in Georgia
- Rare, few data
- Habitat
- Warm scrub, gardens, stony places
- Family
- Soricidae
- Conservation
- DD / LC
The pygmy white-toothed shrew (Suncus etruscus) is one of the smallest living mammals in the world, and probably the smallest by weight: on average it weighs about 1.8 g. To stay alive it needs 1.5–2 times its own weight in food every day, and its heart beats up to 1511 times a minute. In Georgia it is rare: it is known from Tbilisi, Dusheti and the Kotsakhura gorge. It is entirely harmless to people. It rarely ends up in traps: its remains turn up more often in owl pellets.
Identification
Pygmy white-toothed shrew: how to identify it
A tiny shrew with a head and body of only 33–50 mm. The head is large for the body, the snout long and mobile, the ears large and protruding. The fur is short and soft, smoky grey on the back and silvery grey on the belly. No other shrew in Georgia is this small.
Head and body are 33–50 mm long, the tail 21–30 mm, the ear 4–6.2 mm, the hind foot 7–7.5 mm, and it weighs 1.2–2.7 g. The tail is longer than 60% of head-and-body length and faintly two-toned.
The fur is short and soft, pale smoky grey on the back and silvery grey on the belly. There is no clear border between back and belly. The fur grows denser from autumn into winter.
Around the snout it has dense, short whiskers that it uses to find prey at night. It has 30 teeth, though one upper tooth is sometimes tiny or missing.
The lesser white-toothed shrew and the bicoloured white-toothed shrew are much larger, weighing 6–13 g. The bicoloured shrew also has a dark back sharply set off from its white belly. Size is the pygmy white-toothed shrew's surest mark.
Colour
Swatches are illustrative. Do not identify a species by colour alone.
Often confused with
It lives in lowlands and the lower mountain belts, though it has been found up to 3000 m. It probably prefers warm scrub, vineyards, gardens and riverside woodland. It often lives among rocks, boulders, stone walls and ruins, darting in and out between them. It is rare in dry steppe and semi-desert and avoids damp places. Sometimes it enters buildings. In Georgia its records come from Tbilisi, Dusheti and the Kotsakhura gorge. Many records come from owl pellets, so some sites may be where owls roost rather than where the shrew itself lives.
The pygmy white-toothed shrew map combines public iNaturalist observations. Regions are taken from the records-by-region table, and the status column separates regions with enough records from regions with too few records. Record counts reflect observation effort rather than population density. Records are still too few: no region has enough records yet.
Data: Reptiles.ge + iNaturalist · Methodology
- Field observation
- Several records in one spot
- Region with records
It feeds mainly on insects, their larvae and earthworms, and also eats spiders. It can overcome prey almost as large as itself, including young amphibians, lizards and rodents. It kills large prey with a bite to the head and eats it at once, while small insects are carried back to the nest. It prefers soft-bodied insects and avoids ants when it has a choice. When hunting, it relies more on touch than on sight.
It is active mainly at night and most mobile at dawn. It lives alone and is aggressive outside the breeding season, defending its territory with chirping and fights. Such a small body loses heat fast, so in cold weather or when food is short it lowers its body temperature to about 12 °C and falls into temporary torpor. It nests in rodent burrows, under piles of brushwood and in crevices between stones. Gestation lasts 27–28 days, and a litter holds 2–6 naked, blind young of about 0.2 g each. The young are weaned at 19–21 days. When danger threatens, the mother leads them away in a 'caravan', each holding on to the tail in front. It lives about two years.
Globally the pygmy white-toothed shrew is rated Least Concern (LC, 2017). In Georgia its status could not be assessed for lack of data (DD, 2021 national assessment), and its population trend is unknown. It was once listed in the Red Data Book of Georgia as a rare species with a small range. Across most of its range it is very rare, and it is also in the Red Data Book of Kazakhstan. The main threats are the destruction of nesting sites and habitat by farming, as well as cold winters and droughts.
Related guides
Continue with related pages
By weight, probably yes. It weighs about 1.8 g on average, with a head and body of 33–50 mm. By body length, the bumblebee bat is smaller. Both are among the smallest mammals in the world.
Yes, but it is rare. Records come from Tbilisi, Dusheti and the Kotsakhura gorge. There are so few data that its status in Georgia could not be assessed (DD). Many records come from owl pellets.
1.5–2 times its own weight a day. It mostly eats insects, larvae, earthworms and spiders, but it can overcome prey of its own size. In cold weather or when hungry, it lowers its body temperature to 12 °C and falls into temporary torpor.
No, it is entirely harmless to people. It is a secretive, nocturnal animal and rarely seen. If you do find one, do not catch it; leave it where it is.
Globally it is rated Least Concern (LC, 2017), though it is very rare across most of its range. In Georgia it is Data Deficient (DD). It was once listed in the Red Data Book of Georgia.
References
What this profile is based on
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
Prepared by the Reptiles.ge editorial team from the sources listed here.
