The shrew is one of the smallest mammals; it must eat almost without pause to survive.
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usage
qú is a bound form. It appears almost exclusively in 鼩鼱 (shrew, family Soricidae) — small insectivorous mammals that look mouse-like but are not rodents. Despite the rat radical, shrews are evolutionarily distant from rats. The compound is technical zoological vocabulary; everyday Chinese also uses descriptive names like 尖嘴鼠 (pointed-snout mouse). The character itself is rare outside zoology writing.
Left rat radical (Kangxi #208) — the indexing radical. Pre-modern zoology grouped shrews with rats by silhouette even though they are not rodents. The radical files 鼩 in the small-mammal family alongside 鼢 (zokor), 鼯 (flying squirrel).
