Never before caught on camera: California’s most elusive mammal

All shrews were trapped and handled with permits.

Thanks to Prakrit Jain and Vishal Subramanyan for spearheading this project.

This was a three night excursion to the eastern Sierras in California. Shrews were trapped by night with the goal of photographing and filming the Californian endemic Mount Lyell Shrew, an extremely poorly documented species. Other species were recorded as well.

Corrections / additional comments:

00:45 - Large rocks that won’t inhibit the auger.
02:46 - Elevation, not altitude.
04:34 - To be clear, very little is known about its ecology/biology. There might be some unknown aspects of this that are unique.
04:54 - Like other similar Sorex, it’s likely that a substantial portion of this species’ population doesn’t even overwinter on any given year.
07:05 - Not sure if this is true for all shrew venom.
09:24 - Might have been more like -8.
11:28 - For this area at least.

Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:59 - Vagrant Shrew (Sorex vagrans)
03:35 - Mount Lyell Shrew (Sorex lyelli)
07:34 - Camel spider and trapdoor spiders (Eremobates, Aliatypus)
09:38 - Merriam’s Shrew (Sorex merriami)