“Unveiling Nature’s Secret: Watch the Rare Shrew Species Captured on Camera for the Very First Time!”
Hunting The Mount Lyell Shrew In The Eastern Sierra Nevada
The mission to photograph the Mount Lyell shrew was led by Vishal Subramanyan, a recent University of California, Berkeley graduate, with student scientists Prakrit Jain of UC Berkeley and Harper Forbes of the University of Arizona. When they learned that the Mount Lyell shrew was the only California mammal that had never been photographed alive, they launched a mission to track it down — and take some pictures.
Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain, Harper ForbesOne of the Mount Lyell shrews peeking out from the underbrush.
“After scouring the internet and consulting with experts,” Subramanyan explained in an Instagram video co-produced with the California Academy of Sciences — where Jain is an intern and Subramanyan works with its California Creators for Nature — “we were really surprised to learn that no live photos existed of the Mount Lyell shrew.”
To All That’s Interesting, Subramanyan further explained: “We decided to photograph it because despite the many threats it faces from climate change, there is little awareness and documentation of this animal. By photographing it for the first time and observing its natural history, we could learn really valuable behavioral information on this animal and use photos to raise awareness about the threats it faces.”
So, in November 2024, the trio set out to the eastern Sierra Nevada in search of the elusive shrew. Doing so was no easy feat. For one, the shrew is small, less than four inches long and about 0.15 ounces in weight. For another, the tiny creature has an incredibly high metabolism, which means that it needs to eat every couple of hours or it will die. Thus, the shrew seekers had to constantly monitor their traps.
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