Latest news with #VishalSubramanyan
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch: South Bay mountain lion and cubs caught on camera
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — A Bay Area wildlife conservation photographer said 'all our dreams came true' after he and a friend recently captured a mountain lion with her cubs on a remote camera in the South Bay. Vishal Subramanyan and Cynthia Cross had spent three years working to film and photograph mountain lions in the Diablo Range, according to Subramanyan. In February, one of their cameras set up with a motion sensor in the East Foothills of San Jose captured not only a mountain lion, but a mom with her three young cubs. Study reveals ranging diet of San Francisco coyotes The precious video shows the mom nursing her cubs as well as picking one up while the two others prance around the wooded area. The mountain lion family appeared in front of the camera for 20 minutes in total, Subramanyan said, calling it 'one of the most special moments we've ever captured.' 'Mountain lions are obviously an incredible species,' Subramanyan told KRON4. 'As an apex predator in the Bay Area, they play a really important role in top-down ecological effects. So seeing a healthy, thriving breeding population of mountain lions gives me a lot of hope, especially with a lot of negative news we see about our environment today.' Subramanyan is a UC Berkeley graduate with degrees in ecology and statistics, and has worked with organizations such as the California Academy of Sciences, Peninsula Open Space Trust, and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Approximately 4,500 mountain lions are roaming across the state, according to the UC Davis California Mountain Lion Project. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Ammon
13-02-2025
- Science
- Ammon
Elusive Californian mammal captured on camera for first time ever
Momentarily pausing after eating some mealworms, an elusive shrew's long snout pointed skywards, unaware of the historic portrait that had just been captured. Not a single Mount Lyell shrew had ever been photographed alive before, making them the only known mammal species in California to have eluded human cameras, according to the California Academy of Sciences. That all changed in October when recently graduated wildlife photographer Vishal Subramanyan along with student scientists Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes ventured out into the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains and captured six live Mount Lyell shrews (Sorex lyelli). There, they photographed and observed them before setting them free. The initial idea originated with Jain, a student at University of California, Berkeley, who said he was 'shocked' to find that no one had ever taken a photo of a live Mount Lyell shrew. In collaboration with University of California Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Jain, Subramanyan and Forbes devised a plan to search the streams and wetland habitats that crisscross the sparse landscape near the small community of Lee Vining, about 300 miles (482 kilometers) east of San Francisco. 'I'm always down for a crazy adventure. So I said, 'sure, why not?' We should give this a try,' Subramanyan told CNN Monday. Shrews have such a high metabolic rate that they die if they stop eating for a few hours, meaning that they don't survive long in traps. The team set more than 100 pitfall traps, designed for shrews to fall into as they walked across the ground, and constantly monitored the traps for three consecutive days, only sleeping for two hours at a time to monitor the animals' wellbeing. The team photographed the shrew against a white background, as well as a natural one. Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain, and Harper Forbes 'We caught a Mount Lyell shrew within like the first two hours… and I think the fact that we ended up catching six of them, and we caught one so easily shows that it's not crazy difficult,' Subramanyan said. 'It just shows that it's generally an underappreciated species in an underappreciated ecosystem that people haven't spent the time, and been able to actually bring dedicated focus to the shrews.' They also recorded four different species of shrews in the area, some of whom were so similar to the Mount Lyell shrew that they later ran genetic tests to confirm that they had indeed spotted one. 'Handling the shrews was a little bit difficult,' Forbes told CNN, adding that they cut off a small piece of the shrews' tails for genetic testing. 'They bite and they're venomous. So we had to improvise quite a bit. We had to weigh them in plastic bags, and they're only a few grams, but they chew through the plastic bags. They're kind of a pain generally, but they're worth it.' By capturing the shrews alive, the team said they were able to observe their behavior, noticing the mammals' habit of stashing food away for later or taking micronaps. Photographing live animals, particularly ones who are smaller and more obscure, also allows the public to connect with them, helping conservation efforts. Mount Lyell shrews are extremely threatened by the climate crisis and could lose up to 90% of their cold, high altitude habitat as the Earth warms, researchers said, citing a study conducted by UC Davis. 'Without that kind of public awareness and outreach through photographs, the species could have just quietly disappeared under the radar, and nobody would have had any idea about it,' said Subramanyan. CNN
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Here's looking at shrew: How college students got first-ever photos of elusive California mammal
The Mt. Lyell shrew, a mouse-like mammal that lives in the central Sierra Nevada, has never been photographed in the 100 years since it was discovered. It took three industrious college students to figure out a way to finally capture the elusive critter's image. In October, Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes partnered with UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology to set more than 100 pitfall traps near the community of Lee Vining in the Eastern Sierra Nevada region, which is about 300 miles from San Francisco, according to CNN. Read more: Mastodons and 4-ton sloths lived with humans for millennia in the Americas, new discoveries suggest The team checked the traps about every two hours for three days and four nights because the shrews die if they don't eat every few hours, making them difficult to capture alive and photograph. "The hardest part of getting the photos was, one, they're incredibly fast cause they're always running around," Subramanyan told CBS News. The trio set up a white background on the bottom of the box that held the shrew and glass on the top so they could take the photos, according to the news outlet. The Mt. Lyell shrew was known to reside in just a few locations in the central Sierra Nevada near Mt. Lyell but, in recent years, has spread to communities on the central and eastern slopes of the Sierra, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
29-01-2025
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
Here's looking at shrew: How college students got first-ever photos of elusive California mammal
The Mt. Lyell shrew, a mouse-like mammal that lives in the central Sierra Nevada mountains, has never been photographed in the 100 years since it was discovered. It took three industrious college students to figure out a way to finally capture the elusive critter's image. In October, Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes partnered with UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology to set more than 100 pitfall traps near the community of Lee Vining in the Eastern Sierra Nevada region, which is about 300 miles from San Francisco, according to CNN. The team checked the traps about every two hours for three days and four nights because the shrews die if they don't eat every few hours, making them difficult to capture alive and photograph. 'The hardest part of getting the photos was, one, they're incredibly fast cause they're always running around,' Subramanyan told CBS News. The trio set up a white background on the bottom of the box that held the shrew and glass on the top so they could take the photos, according to the news outlet. The Mt. Lyell shrew was known to reside in just a few locations in the central Sierra Nevada near Mt. Lyell but, in recent years, has spread to the communities on the central and eastern slopes of the Sierra, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Elusive, palm-sized shrew caught on camera for the first time
A palm-sized mammal that lives underground in California has been caught alive on camera for the first time. Three undergraduate students came up with an idea to capture the elusive Mount Lyell shrew, native to the Eastern Sierra Nevada region, as part of their fall 2024 project. Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes laid out over 100 traps last November and checked them every two hours, for three days and four nights, to photograph the tiny creatures. "The hardest part of getting the photos was one, they're incredibly fast cuz they're always running around," Subramanyan told CBS News. Another reason the Mount Lynell shrews had never been captured alive on camera is that they have an incredibly fast metabolism, Subramanyan said. When the students learned that this particular animal had never been photographed before, they devised a plan. Researchers have set up similar pitfall traps to capture the shrews, but if they're left in the trap for more than two hours, they'll simply starve to death. That's why Subramanyan, Jain and Forbes had to check their traps every two hours. To take the photos, the students set up a white background on the bottom of a box, using glass on the top so they could photograph through it. They also had a terrarium with soil and mealworms for the shrews. The tiny mammals are active through day and night because they have to constantly feed on insects and arachnids to survive. Another challenge in getting the photos were cold fingers, Subramanyan said. Temperatures in the mountain fell to 15 degrees during the expedition funded with the help of Cal Academy. The students were part of the organization's inaugural California Creators for Nature program that aims to engage people on social media in conversations about nature, climate and environmental justice. In addition to helping raise awareness about the small mammals facing threats from climate change — with 89% projected loss of its habitat by the 2080s, according to UC Berkeley — Subramanyan said his photos will be entered into scientific databases, and they will help make it easier for researchers to identify species of the shrews. AI stocks plunge as China's DeepSeek sends shock wave through Wall Street U.S. troops head to southern border as deportations continue New images of aid reaching Gaza after months of war
