Large otter shrew

Large otter shrew

We are delighted that Fritz Litzmann alias Rainer Pause, Pantheon Theatre Bonn, has taken over the sponsorship of the Great Otter Shrew (Potamogale velox).

It is easy to recognise where it got its German name from: The flat, short-haired tail resembles that of an otter and is used by the excellent swimmer to move around in the water. The flat snout - not really similar to that of a shrew - is elongated forwards. However, the "great otter shrew" is not closely related to either otters or shrews. Rather, it belongs to the Tenrec-like (Afrosoricida), a group of mammals that is only widespread in Madagascar and Central Africa and has very different-looking representatives. This group has only recently been described as a separate mammalian order, whereas its representatives were previously categorised as "insectivores" together with shrews, hedgehogs and moles.

The habitat of the greater otter shrew is the waters in the rainforests of Central Africa: river courses, forest pools or mountain streams - where there are embankments, otter shrews create their nest chamber, the entrance to which is often - as with beavers - under water.

Active at dusk and at night, they spend the day in their burrow, which they only leave in the late afternoon to hunt crustaceans, aquatic insects, fish and sometimes amphibians in short dives in the neighbouring water. Their territory sometimes stretches over 500-1,000 metres of river.