CA's Most Elusive Mammal Was Just Photographed For The 1st Time

CALIFORNIA — Before November of 2024, no one had ever captured a photo of California's most elusive mammal — the Mount Lyell shrew.

But on an expedition to the mountains, it took just three hours for a team of student researchers in the Bay Area to find this creature and snap a photo, wildlife photographer Vishal Subramanyan told Patch. That photo (seen above) was taken on Nov. 2, 2024.

Subramanyan, a 22-year-old UC Berkeley student, and his 20-year-old friend Prakrit Jain, also a UC Berkeley student, set out to find the elusive Mount Lyell shrew after discovering it was the only California mammal species never photographed alive. Soon after, their friend, University of Arizona student Harper Forbes, 22, joined the mission.

"After searching the internet, we were really surprised to learn that no live photos existed of the Mount Lyell shrew," Subramanyan said in an Instagram video posted on Jan. 16.

"To my knowledge, there have been no field studies of this species. We badly need natural history information about this species beyond just distribution, said James Patton, a small mammal expert at UC Berkeley.

So the trio collaborated with UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, who helped them organize a field expedition to study the animal. They traveled to the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where they focused their search in stream and wetland habitats in an otherwise desert landscape.

"Since this particular shrew was first identified more than 100 years ago it's only been recorded on a handful of occasions," Subramanyan said.

To find the shrew, the team set out pitfall traps — the only way to research small, burrowing mammals, according to Subramanyan.

Over three nights, spent in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, the team checked traps constantly to "ensure the shrews' well-being," Subramanyan said. They never slept for more than two hours at a time.

Subramanyan said they were able to film, photograph and take notes on their behavior, recording "much-needed" data before releasing them.

Four different shrew species were recorded throughout their time spent, including the vagrant shrew, Merriam's shrew, Mount Lyell shrew and the montane shrew. Because the shrew species looked so similar, they ran genetics at the California Academy of Sciences to confirm identification.

Shrews mostly feed on insects and arachnids, which they find by touch and smell in vegetation or soil.

"There's still so much more to learn and appreciate about this often overlooked species," Subramanyan said.