Chuchundra sounds like funny nickname or a fairy-tale character than a real animal. But these animals do exist.

Who are these animals with such a funny name?

Chuchundra is a subspecies of the smallest shrew mammals on earth. They usually weight not more than 2 grams. The Giant shrew, as it is scientifically called, grows up to 18 cm in length and can weigh up to 200g.

The habitat of these animals is large. Chuchundra can live almost everywhere: in Southeast Asia, Africa, Malagascar, Japan and South China. Shrews prefer to live not only in forests, but also near humans. For example, you can safely meet this animal in the attic or in the basement of the house.

Shrews are aggressive and they like to eat. Their favorite delicacy is insects, worms and large larvae. A day, these rodents eat two or three times more food than its own weight. You can only envy its metabolism! All food is digested in the stomach in an hour. Shrews usually hunt and search food at night.

Chuchundra can emit a sharp strong smell to protect itself from enemies and scare away predators.

Believe, that these rodents have got high intelligence. Like rats, they are smart, because their brain is equal to 10% of the total body weight. This is much more significant than that of a dolphin and a monkey.

The life of this animal is very short - an average of 1.5 - 2 years.