Elusive, aquatic and wonderfully odd, the Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) is one of Europe\u2019s most mysterious mammals.<\/p>\n
Found only in the fast-flowing mountain streams of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, this small insectivore leads a secretive, nocturnal life. With a flexible trunk-like snout, webbed feet and waterproof fur, it\u2019s perfectly adapted to life underwater. <\/p>\n
Rarely seen in the wild, its presence is often only known through camera traps and environmental DNA. <\/p>\n
As human activity threatens its fragile habitat, conservationists are racing to better understand and protect this unusual species.<\/p>\n
The Pyrenean desman is a small, elusive mammal that lives in clean, fast-flowing streams and rivers in parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Credit: BBC Natural History\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
What is a Pyrenean desman?<\/p>\n
The Pyrenean desman has a distinctive, almost comical look. Measuring around 11\u201316cm long, with a flattened tail of similar length, it has soft, velvety waterproof fur and large, webbed hind feet. <\/p>\n
Its most striking feature is the long, highly flexible snout (reminiscent of an elephant’s trunk<\/a>), which it uses to search for prey underwater. Its small eyes and ears are further adaptations to a mostly aquatic lifestyle, with vision playing a minor role in its world.<\/p>\n Where does the Pyrenean desman live?<\/p>\n This species is highly specialised and restricted to\u00a0clean, fast-flowing streams and rivers\u00a0in mountainous regions. It requires clear, well-oxygenated water with abundant invertebrate life. <\/p>\n The desman builds burrows into steep, muddy riverbanks, with entrances just below the water\u2019s surface. It avoids still water and is highly sensitive to pollution, damming and habitat disruption.<\/p>\n Range and distribution of the Pyrenean desman<\/p>\n The Pyrenean desman is endemic to parts of\u00a0northern Spain, Portugal and small areas of\u00a0south-western France. Its distribution is patchy, and populations are fragmented. <\/p>\n It prefers elevations between 400 and 2,500 metres, often within remote and rugged landscapes where human access is limited \u2014 which offers it some protection.<\/p>\n Pyrenean desman has a long, flexible snout packed with sensory receptors. This ‘trunk-like’ nose helps it detect small invertebrates, such as insect larvae and crustaceans, on riverbeds even in complete darkness. Credit: BBC Natural History\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Pyrenean desman behaviour<\/p>\n Largely nocturnal and solitary, the Pyrenean desman is an expert swimmer. It uses its webbed feet and powerful tail to move through water in search of food. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a stealthy forager, relying on its sensitive snout and whiskers to detect vibrations from prey hiding in gravel and silt. <\/p>\n It spends most of its time either foraging or hidden in its burrow, and very little is still known about its reproductive or social habits.<\/p>\n What does the Pyrenean desman eat?<\/p>\n The desman\u2019s diet consists mainly of\u00a0aquatic invertebrates<\/a>, including insect larvae, worms, molluscs and small crustaceans. Occasionally, it will take tadpoles or small fish. <\/p>\n It forages by feeling along the stream bed, using its snout like a probe to detect and extract prey.<\/p>\n The Pyrenean desman is classified as\u00a0Vulnerable\u00a0by the IUCN. Its population is declining due to habitat degradation, water pollution, dam construction and climate change. Credit: BBC Natural History\/Getty Images At first sight, the desman looks a bit like a chunky shrew. With a bodylength of 14cm, it\u2019s about the same size as a mole (though that comparison doesn\u2019t help much, given how rarely we glimpse moles), and the tail extends it by a further 16cm. The desman\u2019s close affinities to \u2018mole-kind\u2019 (Talpidae) are further apparent with its dumpy body, lack of external ears, barely discernible eyes buried in grey-brown fur, and robust and powerful limbs.<\/p>\n The limbs are in reverse size-order to those of a mole and are just one of the adaptations to a life aquatic that start to make this animal stand out from the crowd. The rear legs are longer and more heavily muscled, equipped with clawed toes fringed with stiff hairs and with webbing in between. These are the desman\u2019s main \u2018thrusters\u2019: powerful paddles that propel it through the water, while the long, slightly keeled tail makes for a stabilising rudder.<\/p>\n Why does the desman have such a long nose?<\/p>\n Slender, incredibly muscular and surprisingly flexible, the nose terminates at a slightly bifurcated tip and two prominent nostrils. All this gives the animal its alternative (and brilliant) colloquial name of trumpet rat.<\/p>\n That nose is the most peculiar thing to see in action. The desman catches prey on the stream bed \u2013 primarily aquatic insects, crustaceans, worms and small molluscs \u2013 and brings it to the surface to consume. Its nose is almost prehensile, bending and prodding in conjunction with the front limbs to manipulate a meal. Watching a desman dispatch and dismember a large stonefly nymph is quite something.<\/p>\n But there is much more to this \u2018trompe\u2019 than just being an extra limb. Look closely and you\u2019ll see it bristling with hyper-sensitive, stiff whiskers known as vibrissae. Many are tiny, sandwiched between minuscule papillae that give the skin a distinctive texture when viewed under a microscope. These structures are Eimer\u2019s organs \u2013 specialised touch receptors found only in moles. If you still doubt this animal\u2019s kinship to its subterranean cousin, this should close the deal. A desman, though, takes things a step further: it has thousands more of these receptors on the tip of its snout, making it a super somatosensory organ that effectively replaces the rest of the animal\u2019s face.<\/p>\n Sensitive to touch, vibration and smell, the snout does the job of eyes, ears and tastebuds, allowing the desman to find its way around underwater and locate prey from considerable distances. Evidence shows that desmans not only \u2018feel\u2019 their prey but smell it too, by rapidly blowing out and re-inhaling air bubbles four times a second while swimming. This underwater sniffing allows the transfer of scent particles from the water to the Jacobson\u2019s organ \u2013 a highly sensitive collection of cells at the base of the nasal passage. A desman\u2019s nose really is its secret weapon.<\/p>\n Conservation status<\/p>\n The Pyrenean desman is currently listed as\u00a0Vulnerable\u00a0by the IUCN. Threats include\u00a0water pollution,\u00a0habitat fragmentation,\u00a0hydroelectric dams and\u00a0climate change, which affects water levels and stream quality. <\/p>\n Conservation efforts focus on habitat restoration, water quality improvement, and better understanding population dynamics through monitoring.<\/p>\n What’s that smell?<\/p>\n Desmans release a strong\u00a0musky scent\u00a0from glands near their tail. It\u2019s used for marking territory, attracting mates, and (strangely) was once harvested for perfume.<\/p>\n The name desman comes from the Swedish desmanratta, which has roots in the word for musk or pleasant scent. Desmanratta translates as muskrat \u2013 referring not to the North American mammal but to the glands at the base of a desman\u2019s tail, which emit a scent for communication and territory-marking.<\/p>\n How many species of desman are there?<\/p>\n There are two species of desman: the Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) and the Russian desman (Desmana moschata). <\/p>\n The Russian desman is larger, found in Eastern Europe and Russia, and prefers lowland rivers and lakes.<\/p>\n Pyrenean desmans are generally solitary animals. They spend a lot of time in the water foraging for food, but are rarely seen due to their secretive nature. Credit: Getty The Pyrenean desman is a\u00a0living fossil<\/a>, having remained relatively unchanged for millions of years. Its odd mix of features \u2014 mole<\/a>, shrew<\/a> and otter<\/a> \u2014 dates back to prehistoric times.<\/p>\n Did you know?<\/p>\n The desman can stay underwater for over two minutes while hunting. Top image: Pyrenean desman. Credit: BBC Natural History\/Getty Images<\/p>\n More amazing animals from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elusive, aquatic and wonderfully odd, the Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) is one of Europe\u2019s most mysterious mammals. Found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-631395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPyrenean desman vs mole: what’s the difference?<\/p>\n
\nA living fossil<\/p>\n
\nIts tail not only helps with swimming but also stores fat for lean times.
\nDespite its small size, it has a large home range and actively defends it.<\/p>\n