Momentarily pausing after eating some mealworms, an elusive shrew’s long snout pointed skywards, unaware of the historic portrait that had just been captured.

To take photos of the Mount Lyell shrew, three students laid out over 100 traps last November in the Eastern Sierra Nevada region and checked them every two hours.

A momentous moment for the wildlife world was captured on camera after a live Mount Lyell shrew was photographed.

Momentarily pausing after eating some mealworms, an elusive shrew’s long snout pointed skywards, unaware of the historic portrait that had just been captured.