Click to Enlarge Image
I thought I’d kick the New Year off small and you can’t get much smaller than this. Shrews are the second smallest mammals in the world and this little guy – the Masked Shrew (sorex cinereus), weighing in at around 4 grams, is the second smallest shrew species in North America. It’s amazing when you’re sitting in the bush waiting for a bear or wolf to show up how the smallest things keep you occupied as the time passes. Normally nocturnal and difficult to see, this little guy kept me entertained coming back and fourth for several minutes as it searched around for small insects, vegetation or other carrion to feed on. Surprisingly, even though I came across a couple of bears and a wolf on this particular day, I learned afterwards that this little shrew may have been the most fearsome critter I saw – they are deemed by some scientists to be fiercer than bears!