Not Last by Thor Holmes Try to imagine an animal that lives its entire life in overdrive. A creature whose need to eat is so great that all other life functions must take a back seat. You're imagining the Least Shrew, Cryptotis parva , the smallest mammal in Kansas. It weighs about 5 grams, as much as a quarter. The shrew is so small that many specimens in our collection were brought in by entomologists using beer bottle pitfall traps to catch beetles.
Least shrews are tiny enough to slip through the neck of the bottle and drown within.
Least shrews are common, nocturnal and warm-blooded. Least shrews must eat as much as their own body weight every day, particularly in cold weather. While eating is paramount they do other things, too. They have as many as three litters each year with two to seven young per litter. Babies are born, weaned and on their own in three weeks.