Water Shrew Survey

Water shrews are currently being studied right across the UK and BoG-WiG is doing its bit by taking part in a national survey.

In this survey plastic tubes containing food are placed in selected water courses very close to the water's edge and left there for two weeks.

A baited plastic tube at the water's edge

The tubes are then collected and any scats found in them are sent off to the Mammal Society for analysis. These are the results so far:

Site No.	Location	Rodent	Terrestrial Shrew	Water Shrew
1	Milton Burn	no	yes	no
2	Glencairn Burn	no	yes	no
3	Golf Course Burn	no	no	no
4	River Nethy	no	no	no
5	Loch Vaa	yes	yes	no
6	Kinchurdy Pond	no	no	no
7	Cullachie Burn	no	yes	no
8	Mallachie Burn	no	yes	no
9	Loch Carraigean	no	no	no
10	Loch Roid	no	no	no
11	Crannaich Burn	no	yes	no
12	Inverlaidnan Burn	no	yes	no

We intend to survey more sites in future and also re-survey some of the above sites where weather and ground conditions were less than ideal on the first attempt.

Ironically, although our tubes have so far failed to find a water shrew, a water shrew skull turned up in an owl pellet from Cromdale - only 13 miles away - and then a few months later two more were found in owl pellets from Milton Loch right beside Boat of Garten.