Prakrit Jain ’22 and his colleagues at UC Berkeley, where he is currently a student, recently made headlines for being the first researchers to take photographs of the Mount Lyell shrew. The photos were taken in October, when the team headed into the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains to capture and observe the rodents. The animals were set free shortly after capture due to their extraordinarily high metabolic rate, which requires them to eat frequently in order to survive. Team members slept two hours at a time in order to ensure the well-being of the animals caught in their traps.

The expedition was also motivated by conservation efforts, as the shrews could lose up to 90% of their habitat due to climate change. Researchers hope the photos can bring greater public awareness of the dangers climate change poses to animal species that are rarely seen.

See the full story at CNN for more details.