The Mount Lyell shrew was discovered more than 100 years ago but has never been photographed alive — until now.
Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain, Harper ForbesThe Mount Lyell shrew as captured in its Sierra Nevada mountain habitat.
The furry creature doesn’t look quite camera-ready. Its snout is raised as if it’s sniffing the air, and its eyes are glazed and bright. It’s no wonder why the tiny California mammal appears so stunned — the Mount Lyell shrew photographed in the Sierra Nevada had never seen a camera before. And until recently, no camera had ever documented one of these shrews alive.
All that changed thanks to an enterprising team composed of a young wildlife photographer and two student scientists. After learning that the Mount Lyell shrew was the only California mammal that had never been photographed alive, they made it their mission to track down the creature and snap some pictures. And after several harrowing nights of carefully monitoring the traps they set, the team succeeded.
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.
“One of the most challenging parts was the lack of sleep,” Subramanyan told All That’s Interesting. “Because shrews have such fast metabolisms, they will die if they spend more than two hours in a trap unattended. This means we needed to check traps every two hours, meaning we could not sleep for more than two hours at a time… In total, we slept only about eight hours the whole trip. Another major challenge was the cold. We had to stay up through the nights, where temperatures often dropped down to 15 degrees.”
But it was worth it. Over the course of their three-day expedition, the young researchers succeeded in capturing four different species of shrew: the vagrant shrew, montane shrew, Merriam’s shrew — and the highly elusive Mount Lyell shrew.
Photographing The Mount Lyell Shrew For The Very First Time
Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain, Harper ForbesSorex lyelli, better known as the Mount Lyell shrew.
All in all, the mission to photograph the Mount Lyell shrew was a success. Having lured six of the elusive creatures into pitfall traps baited with cat food and mealworms, Subramanyan, Jain, and Forbes documented them.
“We were surprised at how many of them we caught,” Subramanyan told All That’s Interesting, “and the frequency in which we observed them stashing their food, something not previously documented in this species.”
To be sure that they had captured a Mount Lyell shrew — and not a different kind of shrew — the team took small samples from the shrews’ tails for DNA testing. They also took the opportunity to record measurements of the shrews’ length and ear size, something that had previously only been done on dead specimens.
Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain, Harper ForbesThe team of scientists hope that their study of the Mount Lyell shrew can raise awareness about it — and the threats it faces.
The expedition was not only an exciting success but an important scientific endeavor. This is more true than ever today, as the Mount Lyell shrew’s habitat is increasingly under threat. According to a press release from UC Berkeley, it is listed as a “mammal species of special concern” (though not endangered) because of dangers it faces from climate change. Scientists predict that the shrew will lose 89 percent of its habitat by the 2080s, and Subramanyan, Jain, and Forbes hope that their project can help bring attention to the problems faced by the Mount Lyell shrew.
“We hope people learn more about the Mount Lyell shrew and the threats it faces, and we hope it inspires people to research and learn more about this animal,” Subramanyan remarked to All That’s Interesting. “More broadly, we hope this effort inspires people to pay more attention to often overlooked species like shrews.”
After reading about how the Mount Lyell shrew was photographed for the first time, discover the stories of some of the most fascinatingly strange animals from around the world. Or, learn about some of the world’s most incredible prehistoric animals.
