The animals run around a lot—and bite—making it especially hard to get good photos of them. “For every photo that we got in focus, we must have 10 or 20 photos where the shrew is running out ...

Momentarily pausing after eating some mealworms, an elusive shrew’s long snout pointed skywards, unaware of the historic portrait that had just been captured.

Not a single Mount Lyell shrew had ever been photographed alive ... piece of the shrews’ tails for genetic testing. “They bite and they’re venomous. So we had to improvise quite a bit.

The Lyell shrew was the only mammal species in California ... small piece of the shrews’ tails for genetic testing. “They bite and they’re venomous. So we had to improvise quite a bit.