Wow. This is the most surprising find on trail camera so far. I have been putting a mouse in the camera box about once a week and until now all the mice have been taken by weasels. And then this. Yesterday a water shrew pulled the mouse from under the slate - the mouse is as big as the shrew and the slate is much heavier.
Here's the video.
Water shrews (Neomys fodiens) live near water (as you would expect) although dispersing youngsters can be found away from water, and I have seen one here before. Their normal diet is freshwater shrimps, caddis fly larvae, that sort of thing, and they will take beetles, worms, millipedes, etc. One of my previous posts documented a water shrew caching food, something I think hadn't been observed before. I have found a 2002 report of water shrews taking carrion but I don't think it has ever been filmed in the wild before.
Wow - it was very persistent getting under the slate - amazing footage !
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