A Cornish photographer has managed to capture a stunning shot of Britain’s tiniest land mammal.
Anita McMillan, whose sister Rhoda Watkins is the nation’s leading big cat tracker, stumbled upon the extraordinary find close to St Austell.
Anita took a picture of a pygmy shrew, marking the first time the animal had been spotted in the UK.
The pygmy shrew measures roughly the same as a humbug sweet and tips the scales at just 2.4 to 6.1 grams – nearly as light as a solitary penny.
Remarkably, the shrew has a particular mutation that gives it an uncanny resemblance to the beloved sweet.
Reflecting on her discovery, following her sister’s suggestion to alert wildlife authorities and specialists, Anita recounted the moment she captured the photograph.
She said: “I thought it was unusual with the markings. It seemed happy to play in the leaves in the open for so long.
“As I was a distance away with the zoom lens, it wasn’t aware of me and kept busy in the leaves.
“It wasn’t until I shared the picture with my sister that I realised it was very special. She is into wildlife tracking and prompted me to contact the Cornwall Mammal Group for an identification.”
Reacting to the breakthrough, Mammal Society chief executive Matt Larsen-Daw stated: “As far as we know, this is the first pygmy shrew with this distinctive patterning ever recorded in the British Isles.
“Pygmy shrews are an important part of our ecosystems. They consume over 250 prey items in a single day – up to 125% of their body weight.”
The Wildlife Trusts have provided some guidance on how to identify the pygmy shrew and where it is typically found.
They explained: “The pygmy shrew has tiny eyes, very small ears and a pointy face with a long nose. It is dark brown above and grey or silver below.
“It is smaller than the common shrew, and its tail is two-thirds the length of its body (common shrew tails are half the length of their bodies). It also has a smaller, narrower snout.
“Widespread, but absent from the Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly, Shetland and some parts of Orkney.”
