The Etruscan shrew is a tiny, furry time machine. Earth’s smallest mammal weighs less than a ping-pong ball and finds food by feeling for it at night, mimicking the very first mammals 200m years ago. They lived in darkness for one simple reason: during the day, dinosaurs roamed.
Two-thirds of mammals are still nocturnal now, so Mammals – the latest David Attenborough nature extravaganza – begins with an episode dedicated to lives lived in the dark. The Etruscan shrew is joined by mole rats, coyotes and a host of others, all hunting under black skies, most of them requiring the latest film-making technology to be seen.
