Elusive Californian mammal captured on camera for first time ever

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The rabbit's long snout was pointed upwards toward the sky, oblivious to the historic photo that had just been taken.

There had never been photographs taken of these creatures alive before, making them the only known mammal species in California to have avoided being photographed by humans, according to the California Academy of Sciences.

That all changed in October when wildlife photographer Vishal Subramanyan, a recent graduate, joined forces with student scientists Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes on an expedition to the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. There, they captured six live Mount Lyell shrews (Sorex lyelli) on camera, observing and photographing them before releasing them back into the wild.

The initial idea came from Jain, a student at University of California, Berkeley, who said they were shocked to discover that no one had ever taken a photo of a live Mount Lyell shrew.

Working with the University of California Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Jain, Subramanyan and Forbes developed a plan to investigate the streams and wetland areas surrounding the small community of Lee Vining, which is roughly 300 miles east of San Francisco.

Shrews have an extremely high metabolism that results in their demise if they stop eating for only a few hours, limiting their ability to survive in traps.

The team set up over 100 trap pits on the ground, which were meant for shrews to fall into as they walked by, and monitored them non-stop for three days straight, taking short two-hour breaks to check on the animals' condition.

We managed to catch a Mount Lyell shrew in just the first two hours. And I think catching six of them gets us started, and catching one so easily suggests that we're not overestimating the challenge.

It just goes to show that it's generally an underappreciated species in a very underappreciated ecosystem. People haven't taken the time to truly zoom in on shrews and give them the dedicated attention they deserve.

They also recorded four different species of shrews in the region, some of which were so similar to the Mount Lyell shrew that further genetic tests were necessary to confirm that they had indeed identified one.

“They’re venomous and they bite, so we had to come up with some creative solutions. We found that weighing them in plastic bags wasn't a reliable method because they're able to chew right through them, despite their small size - they only weigh a few grams. Overall, they can be a bit of a nuisance, but they’re worth the hassle.”

The researchers said that by catching the shrews alive, they were able to closely observe their behavior, identifying their tendency to store food for later use or take short naps.

Capturing images of living animals, especially those that are lesser-known and not as common, makes it possible for the public to form emotional bonds with them, ultimately contributing to conservation efforts.

conducted by UC Davis.

"The species could have gone without anyone even noticing, and it would have disappeared without raising much attention, had we not used photographs to raise awareness about it," said Subramanyan.

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