For my third Mammal Challenge, I placed a jam jar inside my box and placed the food inside. Being a standard sized glass jar, the sides were steep and slippery and I was not sure whether the mammals would be able to climb up to the top of the jar. I was also interested to see if they would feel confident enough to drop down inside the jar.
The results were quite interesting. The bank vole was first in and within a very short period, it was obvious that it realised the food was inside the jar. Investigating around the sides, it was soon reaching up. It did not take it long to decide to jump up to the rim of the jar and drop down inside….
What was fascinating, is what happened next. A common shrew appeared and also went to examine the jar and its contents, even though the vole was inside the jar!
Over the next day, the Common shrew became a common visitor, although it did struggle to get out of the jar so I placed a piece of string to help it…
Finally, the Pygmy shrew came in. Surely, this tiny mammal would not be able to scale the sides of the jar….
Initially, this tiny shrew investigated the jar and was able to scale the sides of the box like a mini spiderman!
It was not until the next day that this tiny shrew investigated again and finally took the plunge to enter the jar… but would he get out again?
I left this jar in for several days, topping it up with food. Within a couple of days, all three species were confidently coming in and out of the jar. All became equally adept at negotiating the jar, with the vole probably being best at this challenge due to its larger size.
I have loved watching this latest challenge!
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