Etruscan Shrew - Habitat

Habitat

The Etruscan shrew favors warm and damp habitats covered with shrubs, which it uses to hide from predators. Areas where open terrain such as grasslands and scrub meet deciduous forests are usually inhabited. It can be found at sea level but is usually confined to the foothills and lower belts of mountain ranges, though has been found up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above sea level. It colonizes riparian thickets along the banks of lakes and rivers, as well as human-cultivated areas (abandoned gardens, orchards, vineyards, olive groves and edges of fields). The shrew, however, avoids intensively cultivated areas, as well as dense forests and sand dunes. It is poorly adapted to digging burrows, so arranges its nests in various natural shelters, crevices and others uninhabited burrows. They frequent rocks, boulders, stone walls and ruins, darting quickly in and out between them.