The remarkable discovery of the two mammals occurring in Canada was by accident. While studying invertebrates in the grasslands of the southern Okanagan Valley, Dr Scudder, an entomologist at UBC, captured a sample of mice and shrews in pitfall traps used for invertebrates. Although most of his captured mammals were common species, four shrews did not match any of the species known to occur in Canada. Shrews are tiny, nondescript mammals, and all look very similar in external appearance.
Identification is made largely from the size and structure of their skulls and teeth.
Before we could make our identifications, Nick Panter, the RBCM s mammal preparator had to carefully extract and clean the delicate skulls of the specimens. Nick Panter works on shrew skulls. The Merriam s Shrew was found near Kilpoola Lake in sagebrush rangeland just west of Osoyoos in the Richter Pass. Two Preble s Shrews were captured in the low elevation benchlands just east of Vaseux Lake . The other Preble Shrew was taken in dense sagebrush high up on Mt Kobau , just north of the Richter Pass.