In the previous year, one day, I had my nose detecting some musky odor as I entered the junk room of my house. There, down on the floor some patches of oily matter were seen. That smelt musky. My sixth sense indicated me that there must be an intruder. I was right: there was a Musk Shrew (Asian House Shrew, Suncus murinus)!
That oily matter were its droppings. As I chased after the shrew to kill, it disappeared from the scene - escaped out into the grassland nearby. With it the 'scent' was also gone - after cleaning the room. So, shrews show such shrewdness in spite of their poor eyesight. They are of about five inches, having elongated and pointed snout and short tail. They are voracious and they can easily echo-locate their prey, the spiders and insects. Baby shrews are said to follow one another behind their mother holding the tails of the sibling walking in front - like ducklings and elephant calves do!
In India, all Hindus know about our friend, the shrew - seen in the temples of the Hindu God, Ganesha, as His conveying vehicle ('Moonjooru' or 'Moorshiga vaaganam')!
This musk shrew is a wonder visitor in my premises who 'greets' me with its odor about his presence, on its occasional and rare foraying-visit!
3 comments:
Eeewww, yucky! Cool post though.
yikes, its scary to look at
I invite you all to share like this your inner feelings after reading the posts!
Post a Comment