Wildlife Welfare

Wild Common Shrew Metabolism and Welfare

Common shrews have extraordinarily high metabolic rates making them acutely sensitive to food shortages and environmental stress.

Key Facts

Common shrews must eat 80-90% of their body weight daily to survive
Their heart beats up to 1,200 times per minute during activity
A gap of just a few hours without food can be fatal in cold conditions
Shrews are among the most difficult wild mammals to rehabilitate due to stress sensitivity
Garden habitat with abundant invertebrates and leaf litter supports shrew populations

Welfare Considerations

Shrew welfare is intimately linked to prey availability and habitat quality. Their extreme metabolic demands mean that habitat degradation causing reduced invertebrate abundance has direct and severe welfare consequences for shrew populations.

What You Can Do

Create invertebrate-rich garden habitats with leaf litter, log piles and rough grass
Avoid disturbing shrew habitat particularly in winter when prey availability is lowest
Handle any found shrews minimally and release immediately due to extreme capture stress