Thread by @DavidGTosh

First up is the Pygmy shrew, Ireland’s smallest mammal.
Its latin name is Sorex minutus which simply means “little shrew”.
In Irish it is known as Dallog Fhraoigh which means “blind mouse” which is likely due to its tiny eyes 1/

#HeritageWeek2021 #kilkenny

Weighing less that a €1 coin it was considered the world’s smallest mammal until the discovery of the Bumble Bee bat in 2001 edgeofexistence.org/species/bumble… 2/
#HeritageWeek2021 #kilkenny

Despite its small size its hungry ALL THE TIME! It has to eat 125% of its own bodyweight, each day, in beetles, woodlice and other invertebrates to survive!
Now that is my kind of mammal!

#HeritageWeek2021 #kilkenny

Considered native to Ireland, it is thought to have arrived in Ireland 6000 -4500 years ago during the Neolithic having hitched a ride with humans.

See @ShrewGod’s paper for more: nature.com/articles/hdy20… 4/

The pygmy shrew was Ireland’s only shrew species until the discovery of the greater white-toothed in barn owl pellets in 2007 in Co. Tipperary.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111… 5/

Since its arrival, the greater white-toothed shrew has spread across Ireland at a rate of 5.5km a year and is replacing the pygmy shrew as it goes 6/
ucd.ie/ecomodel/shrew…

Why is the greater white-toothed shrew (GWTS) replacing the native pygmy shrew? Well @ShrewlockHolmes looked into this for his PhD and suggests its due to the GWTS consuming the core diet of the pygmy...watch this space for more papers from Sam 7/

usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/5976…

So, what can be done to save the pygmy shrew in Ireland?

Its too late to control the greater white-toothed shrew as it is too widespread and controlling it would be inhibitive.

Further work is needed to see if the pygmy shrew will survive in particular habitats. 8/

@DsmSally and friends suggest the pygmy shrew may survive in deciduous woodland and bogs but more work is needed to show whether this will be the case in the long-term 9/

researchgate.net/profile/Neil-R…

@DsmSally How can you help?

You can submit any sightings of shrews you make @BioDataCentre as small mammals like this are often overlooked by us and not recorded.

Or, if you live in #Kilkenny submit any sightings or pictures of what your cat has dragged in to [e-mail]