[3][4] Its preferred habitat is scrub and gardens and it feeds on insects, arachnids, worms, gastropods, newts and small rodents, though its diet usually varies according to the biotope where it lives.

[3] The lesser white-toothed shrew occurs widely from France and Portugal, in the west, across Europe and Asia to Japan and also in North Africa.

It prefers dry ground, including scrub and gardens, and on the Isles of Scilly inhabits also shingle beaches and sand dunes.

[6] In July 1924 W N Blair found an unknown species of shrew on Gugh and sent it to the mammal expert, Mr Hinton, at the British Museum.

In 2010, a Scilly shrew made headlines on BBC Cornwall when it stowed away on the passenger ferry RMV Scillonian III.