Water shrew and lunch

Apologies for the poor quality of this photo, but after 5 visits I finally saw the water shrews in the 'Back from the Brink' exhibit at Slimbridge and I thought I ought to post this shot to show that they really are there (someone has stolen the label from their enclosure).
It was a quiet morning and the keeper was kind enough to scatter a few of their mealworms on the rocks at the back of their exhibit, which gave me a chance. But with hindsight I didn't set a high enough shutter speed: these little fellows are very fast, very, very unpredictable and very, very, very twitchy! November 2011.

Well done! Certainly beats the living daylights out of my best shot of one! (http://www.zoochat.com/1334/european-water-shrew-british-wildlife-centre-137230/ )

gentle lemur said:

someone has stolen the label from their enclosure

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It used to be the fashion for teenagers to steal street signs and car licence plates to put up on their bedroom wall -- I guess water shrew signs are the equivalent for teenage Zoochatters

Lucky guy! I'd assumed they'd been taken away!

Chlidonias said:

It used to be the fashion for teenagers to steal street signs and car licence plates to put up on their bedroom wall -- I guess water shrew signs are the equivalent for teenage Zoochatters

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I could just imagine that becoming a fad. People could swap their Jentink's duiker sign for a long-billed echidna one. The rarer the sign the better.

extra points if the theft of the sign causes other Zoochatters to miss seeing the animal!

IanRRobinson said:

Lucky guy! I'd assumed they'd been taken away!

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It took me 5 visits to see them - although I think that there were no animals in the enclosure for some of that time. The clue is the food in the enclosure (mealworms and Pedigree Chum, according to the keeper, but he may have been joking about the brand of dogfood ). No food means no shrews and vice versa.
I spent an hour watching very little happening, with occasional glimpses of a nose or a tail and three or four quick views of a whole shrew.
I am tempted to print out a sign to stick to the glass next time I go,


Of course if I get caught I will say my name is Pat Chlidonias

Alan

gentle lemur said:

these little fellows are very fast, very, very unpredictable and very, very, very twitchy!

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Couldn't have said it better myself! I went back to their exhibit at the British Wildlife Centre 100 times that day, but I couldn't stay any longer because my flight back to NY was that evening.

Plus I had a friend with me who couldn't have been more bored spending multiple hours at the British Wildlife Centre. He didn't care that it was chock full of Shrews and Voles and Minks that I had never seen before. He likes zoos in general..but he drew the line here haha.

this was the best shot I was able to manage: ZootierlisteHomepage

All in all great shot gentle lemur!!!