Although most of the week as been dedicated to our feathered friends, with my favourite being the rock stealing penguin, we are going to shift gears and finish the week off with an interesting but rare rodent. Oh come on, rodents can be fun too! Especially a semi-aquatic rodent that happens to live in the Pyrenees (for those not up on their Geography…that is a pretty big mountain range in southwest Europe). So what do you say? Shall we grab our hiking gear and begin exploring the mountain streams in search of this vulnerable rodent? Yeah, of course we should!

On the Decline

I said we are searching for a “vulnerable” rodent because their population has experienced a 30% decline  over the last 10 years. As a result, the IUCN has listed them as vulnerable and expects their population to drop by another 30% over the next 10 years. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this cute and cuddly rodent classified as endangered in the coming years…..unless something is done to prevent this. So what exactly is this animal that we should be concerned about?

Natural Born Swimmers

As mentioned the Pyrenean Desman is a semi-aquatic rodent with an average length between 11 – 16 cm (4.3 – 6.3 inches) and is found by the banks of cold mountain streams. They also have a long, flat tail that is about 12 – 16 cm (4.7 – 6.3 inches) long and I know everyone loves little rodents with long, hairless tails, right? Although their tail may creep us out a little, it is quite valuable for the Pyrenean Desman. They are able to use this long, flat tail as a rudder while swimming and when you combine this feature with their water-proof fur (that’s right, they have waterproof fur!!) they become quite proficient at swimming. So if you ever decide to go for a nice, cold swim while visiting the Pyrenees, be sure to look out for swimming rodents.

Detecting Prey with Echolocation…..Really??

The Pyrenean Desman has poor eyesight and has a result it is believed they are capable of using echolocation to detect their aquatic prey such as crustaceans and insect larvae. How do they do this? I am glad you asked. It is speculated that they will slap the water with their long, flat and disgusting tail to generate the waves, which they will sense when it bounces off a tasty snack. Of course this is just speculation but it would be a pretty neat party trick so let’s hope for the Pyrenean Desman that it is true.