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Headline: RAW VIDEO: The Framing Of The Shrew: Rare California Rodent Caught On Film For First Time

Caption: The rare and elusive Mount Lyell shrew has been photographed for the first time in the 100 years since its discovery, thanks to a group of determined university students in California. The small, mouse-like creature, which inhabits the central Sierra Nevada, had never before been captured on camera—until now. Three university students devised a method to successfully photograph the shrew. In October, Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes collaborated with the University of California, Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology to set more than 100 pitfall traps near the community of Lee Vining in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. The location, approximately 300 miles from San Francisco, was chosen based on known sightings of the shrew. In a 7,000ft-high marshy spot in the cold, rugged eastern Sierra mountains, the students hunted their quarry. They baited 150 pitfall traps—small cups dug into the earth to catch wandering creatures—with cat food and mealworms and monitored them across a 600ft area, checking each trap every two hours for any signs of their goal. They slept no more than two hours at a time. Shrews have such a fast metabolism that they die in traps quickly, one of the reasons this species had never been photographed or studied live. To photograph the shrew, the students devised an innovative setup, placing a white background at the bottom of a container while covering the top with glass. This allowed them to capture clear images of the mammal without causing it distress. The Mount Lyell shrew was previously known to inhabit only a few areas in the central Sierra Nevada, particularly near Mount Lyell—hence its name. However, recent observations suggest the species has expanded its range to include communities on both the central and eastern slopes of the Sierra, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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