For almost 50 years since Goodwin's report, the secretive least shrew again remained unseen until one was found in coastal Middlesex County in 1989. Presently, this is the only documented Connecticut location of this species. Shrews are classified as insectivores, not rodents. They are among the smallest of all living mammals. The least shrew is the smallest of the North American shrews and one of the smallest mammals found in Connecticut.
Least shrews have an extremely high metabolic rate.
This rapid conversion of food to energy requires that these animals consume up to their own body weight in food every day. The highly social and gregarious least shrew often cooperates in building burrows or nests, which are sometimes shared with other least shrews during the nesting and wintering seasons. The species uses the runways and burrows of moles, voles and other small mammals but will make its own runways in soft, loose soil. Tunnels under the snow provide protection from wind and intense cold, allowing least shrews to remain active all winter. Least shrews rely mainly on their senses of touch and smell.