Largest and smallest UK mammals?

[Jolanta Zofia Nowak]

Just a trivia question, I know...

.... but just so we actually know, if anyone asks us..!!

[Marshall Stax]

The Red Deer is the UK’s largest land mammal and the Pygmy Shrew would be the smallest.

David

[rlchew]

They would have been my nominations too but you got there first David .

I have seen plenty of the former but never seen the latter.

Richard

[Ukwildlifeo]

I think the pipestrelle bat is a candidate for smallest, as is the harvest mouse. I look it up when i get home

[Marshall Stax]

I think the Harvest Mouse is slightly larger than both the Pygmy Shrew and the Pipistrelle bat and although the Pygmy Shrew and Pipistrelle bodies are very close in size, with only mm’s separating them, I believe that the overall area occupied by the Shrew is slightly less than the Pipistrelle bat and at the lowest end of the scale, it also weighs about 0.6g less.

David

[Jolanta Zofia Nowak]

No point in mentioning the Fin Whale, then..?!

[Marshall Stax]

If you are including non land based mammals, then the Blue Whale appears on the Natural History Museum’s UK species list, so that would be the largest.

David

[Bub-les]

When and where was the last sighting of a blue whale in the UK?
Would love to see one
I've seen large basking sharks

[Marshall Stax]

Originally Posted by Bub-les

When and where was the last sighting of a blue whale in the UK?
Would love to see one

I don’t know when and where the last one was sighted, so may be someone else can answer that but I remember seeing something about one being sighted of the west of Ireland once.

I’m certainly no expert on them but I would think that the chance of seeing one from land would be slim. If you were lucky enough to see one, it would probably be between March and July as they migrate north and would be somewhere along their migratory route, which I believe can come into contact with us anywhere from the west of Ireland, up around the Isle of Lewis, across the north of Scotland and up past Shetland, so needle in a haystack certainly jumps to mind.

David

[Bub-les]

I'll just add it to the list of creatures to see
I remember seeing a dead whale that had been washed up on one of the local beaches. It was a large one but what kind I've no idea and I was only small!