Etruscan shrew

The Etruscan shrew is the smallest ground-dwelling mammal in the world: it’s about the size of a 1 euro coin! With up to 1,300 heartbeats and 900 breaths per minute, it has an extremely high metabolic rate. This means it must eat up to 2 times its body weight in food every day to survive. The Etruscan shrew feeds on invertebrates, mainly insects.

Etruscan shrews are insectivores, making them more closely related to moles than to mice.