Flat-skulled Shrew

About this species

Size

Head and body 5.8–8.7cm; tail 3.1–4.3cm

Habitat

Boreal coniferous forest and forest-tundra

Range

Northern Asia from the Urals to the Pacific; in Mongolia along the Onon basin in the Khentii Mountains, at Lake Khövsgöl and in the Khalkha region of the Greater Khingan

The flat-skulled shrew is a medium to large shrew with a head-and-body length of 5.8–8.7 centimetres. The tail is 31–43 millimetres, shorter than the rest of the body, and the hind foot 12–15 millimetres. The back fur is very dark brown, the flanks lighter and the belly sandy-grey, and the tail is sharply divided into a dark upper side and a light underside. The skull is 20–22 millimetres long. (German Wikipedia, general species account)

It occurs in boreal coniferous forest and forest-tundra in northern Asia from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean, and is native to parts of Russia, Mongolia and China. In Mongolia it lives along the Onon basin in the Khentii Mountains, at Lake Khövsgöl and at Khalkha in the Greater Khingan range; in China it occurs only in northern Xinjiang in the Altai. (German Wikipedia, general species account)

Description: Wildlife of Mongolia guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)