A photographer from Cornwall named Anita McMillan successfully took a beautiful and rare photo of the smallest land mammal near a place called St Austell.
Anita captured a photo of a pygmy shrew and this was the first time this tiny animal had ever been seen in the UK, as per ExpressUK.
The pygmy shrew is extremely tiny and weight only 2.4 to 6.1 grams which is almost as light as a single penny.
It has tiny eyes and ears, a pointed face and a long nose, while its body is dark brown on the top and grey or silver underneath.
Interestingly, the shrew has a unique mutation that makes it look surprisingly similar to the popular sweet humbug sweet.
Reflecting on her discovery, Anita said, "I thought it was unusual with the markings. It seemed happy to play in the leaves in the open for so long. As I was a distance away with the zoom lens, it wasn't aware of me and kept busy in the leaves."
She added, "It wasn't until I shared the picture with my sister that I realised it was very special. She is into wildlife tracking and prompted me to contact the Cornwall Mammal Group for an identification."
Responding to the discovery, Matt Larsen-Daw, the head of the Mammal Society stated, "As far as we know, this is the first pygmy shrew with this distinctive patterning ever recorded in the British Isles."
He further noted that pygmy shrews play a key role for the environment as they help control insect population by eating small prey.
Notably, in just one day, a pygmy shrew can eat more than 250 small creatures.
