Last week, I took some pictures of a mole that my cats had bought in…. yesterday they brought me a common shrew. Whereas they will eat any mice or voles they catch, they never eat shrews. I have since discovered that this is because of foul-tasting glands in a shrew’s skin.
Once again, although the capturing of rodents is a downside of having cats… it was an opportunity again, to take a close look at this mammal. They are now regular visitors in my mouse cam and their long nose and rounded body makes them easy to recognise when they visit.
Apparently, shrews are very territorial, so I daresay we are seeing the same few individuals in the mousecam. Shrews are so active and constantly on the move, that they cannot go without food for more than about three hours and will forage in hedgerows and fields for worms, insects and seeds, often consuming their almost their own body weight in food each day! They have very poor eyesight, but excellent sense of small and very sensitive long whiskers.
Here are a few of the shots took…
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