This small shrew lives in the Venezuelan highlands. It has long claws on its forefeet, builds tunnels beneath moss and leaf litter, and eats small invertebrates.
Its back is brown and its underside olive-colored. The forefeet are enlarged, with long claws; its eyes and ears are reduced, and it relies on whiskers and smell to sense nearby surroundings.
The Merida Small-eared Shrew eats animals with different forms and ways of life, including moth larvae and pupae, fly larvae, and both larval and adult beetles. The leaf litter and soil provide a varied menu.
A 2000 paper examined 55 full digestive tracts selected from specimens caught in the Monte Zerpa cloud forest, Venezuela, between April 1988 and December 1995. Researchers compared fragments such as legs, wings and antennae with insect specimens from the same forest and identification references.
They identified 35 prey categories. Beetles accounted for about 30 percent of counted prey items, while each digestive tract contained an average of about nine prey categories. The remains revealed a diet combining many small forest-floor animals.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The IUCN global assessment dated 26 May 2016 and published in 2017 classified this species as Vulnerable (VU), citing fragmentation and continuing decline of cloud-forest and páramo habitat. Although the assessment recorded use of some disturbed habitats, it identified land-use change, deforestation and warming as threats. Conserving forest and páramo habitat remains a conservation priority.