water shrews

http://www.yptenc.org.uk/docs/factsheets/animal_facts/water_shrew.html
Although the water shrew, as its name implies, tends to be found in watery habitats - it particularly likes watercress beds - it often lives away from water. Some live on stony beaches, probably feeding on sandhoppers and flies along the high tide line. Others may be found in farmland, woods and hedgerows.
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The water shrew alternates between short periods of activity and rest, making regular short trips out of its home to forage for food, poking its sensitive nose into every nook and crannie, pouncing on earthworms and any small minibeasts.

http://www.wnrmag.com/stories/2003/oct03/shrew.htm
The guard hairs have another interesting adaptation. A microscopic view of the guard in cross-section shows the hair is shaped like the capital letter “H”. This unusual shape provides a lot more surface are for air to adhere to each hair. So many air bubbles are trapped that the swimming shrew appears silvery under water like a speeding little bullet. On the other hand, all those trapped bubbles make the shrew extremely buoyant, and it can only stay submerged for about 48 seconds.

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Sorex_palustris.html
Besides swimming, some water shrews have been seen walking on the surface of water (Jackson, 1928). It has been suggested that water shrews can walk on water because they can trap air bubbles in the stiff hairs of their feet (Jackson, 1928).

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http://members.chello.at/natura/shrew/leisure5.html
THE KILLER SHREWS (1959) James Best, Ingrid Goulde, Gordon Mclendon, Ken Curtis. "And the shrew devours everything. "Flesh, bones, marrow...everything." This movie's what low budget, '50s sci-fi was supposed to be all about. Research scientists develop a breed of giant, carnivorous shrews that terrorize a group of people on a small island off the coast of Texas.
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The characters never really do anything except stand around and drink, then they get killed by dogs with wax teeth wearing bath mats.

genus of the day: Solenodon

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Solenodon_paradoxus.html
Solenodon paradoxus looks much like a shrew. However, it is considerably larger. A black to reddish-brown pelage covers the majority of the body, with the exception of the tail, feet, nose, and tips of the ears. The forelimbs are considerably more developed than the hindlegs, but all limbs have claws presumably for digging.

Its heads is large in proportion to its body and the rostrum is elongated. A defining characteristic of Solenodon paradoxus is the os proboscis, a bone (which supports a long cartilaginous snout) located on the tip of the rostrum. This species' dental formula is 3/3, 1/1, 3/3, 3/3 = 40. The second lower incisor has a groove from which a venom is secreted from a mandibular gland.

Males of this species have an unexposed penis and testes residing deep within the abdominal cavity.
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Solenodon paradoxus is described as a "slow mover" and a "clumsy runner with no agility in avoiding enemies and a poor means of defense" (International Wildlife Encyclopedia, 1974). It has been observed sitting still, with its head hidden, while predators are in pursuit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solenodon
The Haitian solenodon is practically extinct, with sightings of specimens or their markings occurring rather infrequently. The Cuban Solenodon was thought to have been extinct until a live specimen was found in 2003.

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http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/english/milenioing/solenodon.htm
The Solenodon´s Call is heard at the End of Disconcert.

By Iliana García Giraldino

With its body covered by abundant hair, small ears, long muzzle, strong moustache and black eyes, brilliant and homesick, the helpless meek Solenodon from millions of years, seems not to feel pride of its epic resistance of its specie to disappear and simply tries to survive in order not to be erased definitively from Earth.