The Least Shrew Diet

Time Frame

• A shrew such as the least shrew must consume as much as 100 percent of its body weight in a 24-hour period just to maintain its metabolism. Death can occur in a very short span on a particularly cold day if the shrew is unable to locate something to eat. The shrew will always look as if it is nervous when awake, being on the move at all times. The least shrew has the typical short lifespan of most shrews, with a two-year old specimen considered very old.

Types

• The diet of the least shrew is mostly meat, as the creature will try to kill anything it encounters smaller than it is and often those that are larger. Creatures on the menu of a least shrew include earthworms, crickets, beetles, insect larvae, snails, slugs, caterpillars, small types of frogs and toads, salamanders, millipedes and in some instances, carrion. The least shrew will also eat plant material such as fruits and seeds when it must, as well as fungi.

Bee Mole

• Among the favorite foods of the least shrews are honeybees, a fact that gives rise to one of the shrew's nicknames---the bee mole. The Missouri Department of Conservation website tells of least shrews entering a beehive and systematically eating the bees, then using the hive as its own nesting place. Least shrews will also gobble down insects, taking care with crickets and grasshoppers to first chew off the head and then devour only the internal organs of the bug.

Attack Methods

• When it attacks a larger creature, the least shrew will bite at the legs of the animal, effectively crippling it and hindering its escape until it can finish it off. The least shrew will tackle much larger lizards, biting them on the tail. The lizard will escape when its tail comes off; the shrew winds up with a meal, and the lizard will regenerate its tail later on.

Predators

• Just as many animals wind up as part of the least shrew's diet, so this shrew is often on the wrong end of the food web. Owls in particular will make quick work of the least shrew, with some like the barn owl using this shrew to fill a large chunk of its food needs. Other raptors such as hawks will eat the least shrew and mammals like the weasel, mink, badger, fox, skunk, raccoon and snakes hunt and consume this small creature.