Insectivores: Insectivora

Insectivores live primarily on land, typically at ground level or beneath it. A few species, like the Asiatic water shrews, are aquatic. Insectivores can survive in a wide range of habitats from tropical rainforests to temperate marshes, from thick forests to open fields, and from sea-level deserts to mountainsides up to 14,760 feet (4,500 meters). Some fossorial, underground, species, like the star-nosed mole, prefer to burrow in the wet soil around freshwater marshes and occasionally venture into somewhat salty, brackish, waters, while others, like the eastern mole, use enlarged, shovel-like forefeet to tunnel through the drier soils of forests and fields. The gymnures prefer hiding places among tree roots or fallen branches, sometimes even inside termite mounds. Shrews, which comprise almost three-quarters of all species in the order, spend much of their time in shallow depressions that they dig beneath some form of shelter, including rocks, logs, and fallen leaves.