Oddity Ark #1 (181): Hero Shrew

“We have a duty to share what we know, educate over entertain…but that doesn’t mean we can’t do both.” Elouise Clayton September 2016

These words have been with me for a while, unlike some people on the Site I only knew Elouise ‘Red Menace’ Clayton AKA Impurest Cheese for two years, but I had both the honour and dishonour of knowing her in person for those two years. I will elaborate more after the release below; so please keep reading and enjoy (if you can).

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Oddity Ark #1 (#181)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Eulipotyphia

Family: Soricidae

Genus: Scutisorex

Species:somereni (1)

Related Species: The hero shrew is one of two species of shrew in the genus Scutisorex, the other being Thor’s hero shrew (S.thori).

Range: The hero shrew is found throughout the tropical rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

IUCN Status: The hero shrew is currently classified as being of ‘Least Concerned’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Lower Class Hero

The hero shrew is a small insectivorous mammal that reaches a length of 12-15cm in length and a max weight of 70-113 grams. Hero shrews have greyish brown fur and has a flexible snout that allows them to locate prey, as well as detect predators and intruders that are in their territory. Highly territorial, hero shrews mark the edges of their territory with a chemical spray, contorting its body to spray areas normally out of their reach. The spray is pungent and acts as a repellent to rival hero shrews, but also has the unfortunate side-effect of staining the shrew’s fur a pale yellow in colour as it ages (2).

While primarily a hunter of beetle larvae and worms, hero shrews will target larger prey such as small frogs and reptiles. The shrew is an active hunter, burrowing under decomposing logs and rocks to find prey, a dangerous pastime due to the potential for such refugia to crush the little animal. To avoid such incidents being fatal, the hero shrew has evolved thicker ribs and its eleven lumbar vertebrae, nearly all other mammals only have five lumbar vertebrae, that can interlock, thus reinforcing the spine to withstand greater pressure. These reinforced vertebrae make up 4% of the shrew’s body weight and allow it to support a weight of up to 70kg pressing down on its back with little to no damage (3).

Little is known about the breeding of either the hero shrew or Thor’s hero shrew, but it is assumed to be similar to unrelated but similar species. The bones, particularly the spines and vertebrae, of hero shrews were considered to be a talisman of extraordinary strength by the Mangbetu people of the Congo. Even the ashes of the bones were thought to grant invincibility to those adorned with it, and could be used to make potions that inspired courage in the drinker (4).

Spotlight: Sundown and Impurest Cheese

At the beginning of this issue I said I had the honour and dishonour of knowing Impurest Cheese. The honour should be self-evident, the dishonour…knowing Elouise is like an addiction, you get hooked on her positivity, her intelligence and most of all her generosity, to the point that, when it gets taken away it sends your entire world off its axis. At times I believe I would have been better off not knowing her as it has made the last five years painful at points, but those are far and very few.

While many here know her as a writer, I knew Elouise as a teacher, during my work placement at the firm she worked for she taught me a lot, and then helped me get a paying job the year after. That was in 2017 and already there were signs that she was ill, but even though that was the case she continued to bounce through life at a rate that made everyone look like they were standing still. As her health got worse Elouise asked me to do three things in case she was gone.

The first was to finish her reports and projects in the real work, and that was ironically what caused me to look at Comicvine once again. After finishing the last ecology report for a big infastructure project (delayed due to Covid) I was jerked into reality when I saw the client thank, not only the extant members of the team but also give a big thank you to Elouise. With the last ecology project finished I went out, ordered a beer after work and looked at Comicvine and that’s when I figured Elouise was playing her hand.

There on the fan-fic board one of the people she talked about, cbishop, had set up a contest regarding one of the characters Elouise had created for her ‘Patronverse’ (please check it out it's awesome). And then I realised I hadn’t done either of the other two requests. The one that pertains here is to continue teaching what she had taught me. I wondered if I should continue this under Impurest’s Guide to Animals, but decided that I’m not Impurest Cheese, it would be wrong to do so. I have somewhat preserved the numbering hence the ‘1/181’ in the title.

I will endeavour to get this series to ‘??/200’ if I can and then take it from there. I hope you all enjoy it, and most of all I hope you learn something, it would be what Elouise would want.

References

1. www.arkive.com

2. Piper, Ross (2007) Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopaedia of Curious and Unusual Animals

3. Allen. J.A. (1917) The skeletal characters of Scutisorex Thomas". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.

4. Stanley, W. T.; Robbins, L. W.; Malekani, J. M.; Mbalitini, S. G.; Migurimu, D. A.; Mukinzi, J. C.; Hulselmans, J.; Prevot, V.; Verheyen, E.; Hutterer, R.; Doty, J. B.; Monroe, B. P.; Nakazawa, Y. J.; Braden, Z.; Carroll, D.; Kerbis Peterhans, J. C.; Bates, J. M.; Esselstyn, J. A. (23 October 2013). "A new hero emerges: Another exceptional mammalian spine and its potential adaptive significance". Biology Letters. 9 (5)

Picture Credits

1. R.e63f06850479143c3a87a893d27e56eb (2048×1362) (bing.com)

2. 042820_jb_hero-shrew_feat-1028x579.jpg (1028×579) (sciencenews.org)

3. R.0a9a97ee0a9876ba3259439f64d172a0 (634×798) (bing.com)

@cbishop: I'm not sure who to call out for this, but I know Imp often included you in what she wrote

Welcome! This is cool, and I can't wait to read about more animals! I will add the links for your Oddity Ark to the Fact-O-Pedia page for .Impurest's Guide to Animals, by IC. (because I'm also FicOPedia). :)

Your pics aren't showing. CV has been glitching some lately. If you put captions on the pics, and they have quotation marks in them, take the quotation marks out, and the pic should show up. (I'm having to fix a bunch of mine like that)

You got to know Imp' in person? That's pretty cool. I never got to do that, and yet, I miss her all the time anyway.

And you said you were looking at CV once again... were you here before under a different name, or did you swing by and read on occasion?

Whatever the case, cheers, and welcome (or welcome back) to CV. :)

@captainmarvel4ever, @batkevin74, @wildvine, @amazing_webhead, @avenging_x_bolt, @boschepg: You might be interested in this. :)

@cbishop: Thanks it feels so weird talking to someone Elle mentioned nearly every day I met her, even if it was a brief anecdotal thing.

This is essentially my first go-round at posting, I first came on to see the memorial page(s) someone created and then stayed to read a few things. I regret not doing this sooner to be honest, but I suppose better late than never, is better than never.

It's weird talking to someone who knew her in person too! :)

Much better than never! Looking forward to more. :)

@cbishop: @sundown89: very cool, happy to help when I can :)

@batkevin74: Thanks its most appreciated

@sundown89: <whimpers> Pokemon card? :}

@ficopedia: Shrew'd of you to point this out...

@sundown89: Ha! :)