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common_natureYesterday I got to see a tiny shrew very close-up and it was very exciting.
So I was sitting on a muddy path in a wooded area because of reasons (ok, exhausted after climbing) when I saw movement and a tiny thing scurrying past me. I figured that glimpse was all I'd see, but I turned round to see where it'd gone and it was on the path on the other side of me, and with great caution so as not to startle it I managed to dig my phone out of my coat pocket:
(There's nothing to give a sense of scale, but the shrew is a few centimetres long. It makes mice look big.)
THEN --
I was able to lean in closer, because the shrew had found an earthworm on the path and was thoroughly occupied, because apparently if you have to eat every 2-3 hours to survive you don't give a shit about the large inedible mammal looming in your direction:
At this point, I am lying on the muddy path with my arm stretched out, trying to get the phone as close as possible to the shrew without frightening it off. This is probably one reason why the photos are blurry, but the other is that shrews are in constant veryveryfast motion. Nonetheless, this is the best shot I got of how its snout wiggles around like an anteater's:
Ultimate close-up:
For reference, this is what a shrew looks like without the motion blur:
Shrew photo courtesy of the RSPB
So I was sitting on a muddy path in a wooded area because of reasons (ok, exhausted after climbing) when I saw movement and a tiny thing scurrying past me. I figured that glimpse was all I'd see, but I turned round to see where it'd gone and it was on the path on the other side of me, and with great caution so as not to startle it I managed to dig my phone out of my coat pocket:
(There's nothing to give a sense of scale, but the shrew is a few centimetres long. It makes mice look big.)
THEN --
I was able to lean in closer, because the shrew had found an earthworm on the path and was thoroughly occupied, because apparently if you have to eat every 2-3 hours to survive you don't give a shit about the large inedible mammal looming in your direction:
At this point, I am lying on the muddy path with my arm stretched out, trying to get the phone as close as possible to the shrew without frightening it off. This is probably one reason why the photos are blurry, but the other is that shrews are in constant veryveryfast motion. Nonetheless, this is the best shot I got of how its snout wiggles around like an anteater's:
Ultimate close-up:
For reference, this is what a shrew looks like without the motion blur:
Shrew photo courtesy of the RSPB
