——Preface·]—
Speaking of rats, which like to live with people and are easy to carry germs, readers and friends must be very familiar with and hate them, and even raise cats to prevent rats from appearing at home.
The rats we know of are gray-haired, dirty, nasty creatures with long tails that run around human dwellings and carry a lot of disease-causing bacteria.
However, can you imagine that such a "mouse" will run into a carved ice cave in the ice and snow, swim freely under the surface of the water, swim faster than a fish in the water, and can also prey on small fish for their own food?
It may sound a little incredible, but in reality, there is indeed such a water mouse swimming in the water, and the traces of this water mouse can occasionally be seen under the lake ice in Jilin in Northeast China.
- What the hell is a water rat ·
Humans live on land, and although they can swim in the water or catch fish and shrimp for food, they are still terrestrial creatures.
The water is a bit unfamiliar to humans, so strange rumors often circulate about creatures in the waters, such as water ghosts and water monkeys.
But it turns out that these rumored things are just sloths swimming in the water, and there is no such thing as a water monkey.
And the water rat, at first glance, it seems to be a folk miscommunication, after all, the mouse that can move freely underwater in the ice and snow has not been caught, which sounds a bit bizarre.
However, this water rat is not a folk misinformation, but a real creature, and it is indeed very similar to a mouse, and the scientific name of this creature is called the water shrew.
The water shrew is a creature of the shrew family, and the family members of this family, without exception, look like mice with sharp beaks, and the coat color of the water shrew is brown gray, gray and white, with a little bit of earthy yellow, it is more like a gray-skinned mouse.
The size of the water shrew is a little smaller than that of the mouse, the body length is only about seven or eight centimeters, and the water shrew is called the water mouse, but it is really not wronged.
Whether it is the folk name water rat or the scientific name water shrew, it shows that the water shrew is a creature that likes to move in the water.
Although the water shrew can walk on land, the water shrew also likes to stay in the water, and the water shrew spends most of its time swimming in rivers and lakes and land next to rivers and lakes.
——Very rare·]—
The water shrew is a very hardy amphibian, so its main range is north of 40 degrees north latitude.
In China, the water shrew is very rare, and it has been found in Changbai Mountain in Northeast China, Xiaoxing'an Mountains in Heilongjiang and Guizhou, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.
Also because of the rarity of water shrews, the first recorded sighting of water shrews in China was in 1955, and so far, we have seen very few specimens of water shrews.
In foreign countries, water shrews are also very rare, only Russia, Mongolia, North Korea and North America Canada have seen water shrews.
- Diving expert] —
Water shrews don't actually live entirely in the water, most of the time, they inhabit the grass on land next to the water, and the water shrews will build nests in it, and if they encounter predators, the water shrews will quickly jump into the water and swim to escape.
Their fur is very waterproof and can also play a role in keeping warm underwater, which is why they dare to enter the water in the cold of winter.
Although there are many land-based mammals that can dive, the water shrew must be the smallest of these animals.
Because of its small size, the water shrew swims nimbly in the water like a fish, and the water shrew does not hibernate, but lives in a colder place, and the temperature of the water is even colder.
Even if it has warm fur, the water shrew has to warm up before entering the water to increase its body temperature, after increasing the body temperature, the water shrew will quickly enter the water, and quickly look for food, in order to eat and drink in the shortest time, and then successfully go ashore.
- Blind Mouse] —
The water shrew also has a nickname, called the blind mouse, the water mouse's eyesight is very poor, even so, the underwater combat effectiveness of the water shrew is still very strong, and it can be called a master of assassination.
This is because water shrews rely primarily on their keen sense of smell rather than poor eyesight when hunting in the water.
Water shrews have a very special way of predating when they are foraging underwater, and once they get close to their prey, small bubbles in their nostrils will approach the prey, and then the prey will be infected with small bubbles, which will then be withdrawn from their noses.
At this time, the water shrew will lock on to each other's information through its sense of smell and hunt down its prey.
The underwater shrew shrew is still a big foodie, it can eat food equivalent to two or even five times its body weight, and even the crayfish, which is larger than the water shrew shrew, is also a very ** animal, and it is difficult to escape the predation of the water shrew.
While it may sound fantastical for water shrews to be able to hunt crayfish in terms of size alone, for water shrews, it's commonplace.
- Poisonous gas and stench].
The salivary glands of the water shrew can secrete a special venom, which is not highly poisonous, but can make small animals unconscious and difficult to move.
The water shrew is not only poisonous, but also smelly, when it encounters natural enemies, the water shrew will release the odor through its own stink glands, and then take advantage of the moment when the natural enemy is smoked by the smell to quickly run away, dive into the water, and slip away.
——Protecting Animals.]—
If you readers and friends see a water shrew in the wild, don't touch it, although the poison of the water shrew does not have such a big effect on humans, but it will also make the contamination of the ** red and swollen.
Secondly, the water shrew is still a protected animal in our country, it is one of the vulnerable lists, see this animal, take a picture from afar as a souvenir, but don't tease it, it is likely to be poisoned, if it has an accident, you may also have a prison sentence.
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