Crocidura elgonius

Osgood, 1910

Elgon Shrew

Figure 1. FMNH 158685. Photograph by R. Banasiak.

Type Description:

Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 5:369

Type Locality:

Kenya, Mt. Elgon, Kirui.

Measurements:

Total length: 86-107 mm

Head and body: 50-60 mm

Tail length: 35-45 mm

Hindfoot length: 9-11 mm

Ear length: 6-9 mm

Weight: 3-10 g

Description:

This is a very small brown shrew with short hairs (dorsal hairs no more than 2 mm). There is a clear demarcation between the brown dorsal pelage and the dirty white ventral pelage. The ears are prominent. The forefeet are pale, and the hindfeet are pale, as well, except for digits 4 and 5, which are darker. The tail is bicoloured and approximately 55% of the length of head and body, and two thirds of it have long guard hairs.

Comparisons:

Crocidura fuscomurina is also small, but is even more distinctly bicoloured, and has a skull with the following characteristics: maximum breadth of maxilla > 5.20 mm; width of M2 > 1.8 mm; Interorbital breadth > 3.8 mm; first unicuspid and incisors are quite large when compared to posterior unicuspids; anterior face of tooth posterior to the most posterior unicuspid is concave, not flat.

Distribution:

Crocidura elgonius can be found in all vegetation types and altitudes throughout the mountains of western Kenya and northeastern Tanzania. (Kingdon, 1997) (Wilson and Reeder, 2005) In Tanzania, this species has been recorded in the East and West Usambara, Uluguru and Udzungwa Mountains.

Figure 2.

Ecological Notes:

This species has been collected in disturbed habitats near montane forest and in other habitats in highlands. In a recent survey of the Udzungwa Mountains, C. elgonius was the most common shrew in dry forests at 600 m and absent in wetter forests above 1000 m. In the East Usambaras, this is the most common shrew in plantations of tea.

Key Reference:

1. Kingdon, J. 1984. East African mammals: An atlas of evolution in Africa. (Insectivores and Bats). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2A:95-109.
2. Kingdon, J. 1997. The Kingdon field guide to African mammals, AP Natural World Academic Press, Harcourt Brace & Company, San Diego, p. 145-146.
3. Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World. Sixth ed. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1:202-203, 218-222.
4. Swynnerton, G. H., and R. W. Hayman. 1951. A checklist of the land mammals of the Tanganyika Territory and the Zanzibar Protectorate. Journal of the East African Natural History Society, 20(6):274-392.
5. Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder (eds.). 2005. Mammal species of the world, a taxonomic and geographic reference, Third ed. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1:230.