Food Consumption and Energy Requirements of Captive British Shrews and the Mole

The food consumption of individuals of all four species of British shrews has been measured using captive animals and relying on readily‐purchased invertebrate foods. Particular interest attaches to the investigation because shrews have been held to have a higher metabolic rate than other small mammals, and should in that case have 8 relatively higher calorie intake. The shrews did show a high total wet food intake, but this was correlated with the high water content and consequent low calorific value of their food. The intake of calories per gram body weight for water shrew, common shrew and Scilly shrew only slightly exceeded that of mice of comparable size: this function was considerably more for the pygmy shrew, and considerably lese for the mole, as would be expected from consideration of their respective sizes. The results accord with the view that the energy requirement of small insectivores does not differ in any fundamental way from that of small rodents.