Mouse or shrew?
How to tell them apart
A shrew has sharp, spiky teeth and a longer nose; a mouse is a rodent with gnawing front teeth.
Quick answers
They differ on 4 of the 8 quick answers: carnivore, domesticated, awake when, kept as a pet.
| Question | Mouse | Shrew |
|---|---|---|
| What is it? | Mammal | Mammal |
| Carnivore? differs | Omnivore | Insects only |
| Dangerous? | No | No |
| Domesticated? differs | Yes | No |
| Awake when? differs | Night | Day & night |
| Hibernates? | No | No |
| Kept as a pet? differs | Commonly | No |
| Do people eat it? | No | No |
At a glance
| Question | Mouse | Shrew |
|---|---|---|
| Found in differs | Worldwide | Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America |
| Habitat differs | Towns, Farmland, Grassland | – |
| Size | Tiny | Tiny |
| Length differs | 6.5–9.5 cm, not counting the tail | 3.5 cm (Etruscan shrew) to about 15 cm (Asian house shrew) |
| Weight differs | 12–30 g | 1.8 g (Etruscan shrew) to about 100 g |
| Legs | 4 | 4 |
| Covered in | Fur | Fur |
| Lives differs | In groups | Alone |
| Lives for | 1–2 years | 1–2 years |
| Can fly | No | No |
| Swims | Yes | Yes |
| Lays eggs | No | No |
About each
Mouse
Small rodents best known through the house mouse, which lives alongside people almost everywhere. It was domesticated as the pet “fancy mouse” and as the laboratory mouse, one of biology’s most important model animals.
Shrew
A family of 385 species of tiny, mouse-like mammals that are not rodents at all; their closest relatives are hedgehogs and moles. Shrews have a very high metabolism and must eat almost constantly, and some species are venomous or use echolocation.
Sources
Last reviewed . The answers and notes come from each animal's own page, where every source is listed.
How each answer is decided: How we answer. More look-alikes: Side by side.