Creature Profile: The Shrew Snake

Creature Name

Shrew Snake

First Appeared In

Lost Under Two Moons

Physical Description

The adult shrew snake is typically six to nine inches long, most of which consists of its long sinuous body. It has two small, flexible legs that move in a cartwheeling motion when the creature runs. The shrew snake’s head and shoulders are covering in a fine, light brown fur, while the long body is mostly hairless and is a deep purple.

Natural Environment

These diminutive animals are found exclusively in the Painted Desert, where their odd mixture of colors provides wonderful camouflage during the rare occasions that it risks exposing itself in the daylight. More commonly, the shrew snake burrows under the sandy soil, using its long, wriggling body to move easily through short-lived tunnels. Being nocturnal, this creature feeds on insects, seeds, and the tender tips of plant roots.

Behavior

Shrew snakes are solitary creatures who only seek out their own species to mate. A pregnant female will seek out a dead stone plant which has begun to rot from the inside out. Using her teeth and powerful limbs, she carves out a den inside the rocky dome, providing herself and her young with a safe, insulated home. Infant shrew snakes reach maturity in just four weeks.

Additional Background

While the shrew snake is superbly adapted to its environment, the harsh conditions of the Painted Desert ensure that the total population of these creatures is never very large. However, if these creatures were ever introduced into another environment (including man-made environments) it may be that this unassuming little creature could reproduce to plague-like proportions.

Inspiration

The shrew snake was the first animal I created for Lost Under Two Moons. It actually started life as a doodle, with a long, random line becoming the tail and a small, mouse-like head being added on later. I added the pair of legs to the front because I wanted to give Richard an early indication that animal life on Other World was going to be very different from what he was used to. It wasn’t until much later that I learned that there is actually a real-life creature with a similar body structure to my shrew snake. Called the Mexican mole lizard, this bizarre little reptile has an elongated body and a single pair of legs close to its head. While I can’t say that this creature was the inspiration for the shrew snake, I’m thrilled to find something that so closely resembles what I had thought was a creature too weird to be real!

I hope you enjoyed this month’s Creature Profile. Next month’s feature will be the forest devil from The Beast Hunter. If you’d like to contribute artwork to the profile, send your pictures to lindsay@lindsayschopfer.com and put “Forest Devil Picture” as the subject. Deadline is November 17.