Sorex caecutiens hallamontanus

Jo, Yeong-Seok, Kim, Tae-Wook, Choi, Byeong-Jin & Oh, Hong-Shik, 2012, Current status of terrestrial mammals on Jeju Island, Journal of Species Research 1 (2), pp. 249-256 : 249-250

Sorex caecutiens hallamontanus , Jeju Shrew

Discovered by Oh in 1994 ( Ohdachi et al., 2003), this is the only Sorex species on Jeju. According to Ohdachi et al. (2005), this species is a subspecies of Sorex caecutiens , but on the Korean peninsula the subspecific status of S. c. annexus and S. c. macropygmaeus is uncertain ( Won and Smith, 1999). S. c. hallamontanus is the largest among the S. caecutiens / shinto group and morphologically similar to S. shinto , even though DNA data place this form with S. caecutiens ( Ohdachi et al., 2005) . The key character of Jeju Shrew is the distinguishable width of the side paracone of the fourth premolar of upper jaw (H.S. Oh, Cheju National University, unpublished report).

S. c. hallamontanus is found between 800- 1,400 m around Halla-san, but its natural history has not been described ( Oh et al., 2007). On Korean peninsula, S. caecu-

Species Extinction period Remarks

Prionailurus begalensis 1930s-1940s Last sample acquired by Mori (1928)

Ursus arctos Prehistoric era Fossil record ( Park, 1974)

Sus scrofa Early 20 th century Fossil record ( Park, 1974)

Cervus nippon Early 20 th century Fossil record ( Park, 1974)

Species Introduced period Cause of introduction Current status

Vulpes vulpes 1987 Farming Few escaped but the population never established Sus scrofa 2003 Farming Increasing

Cervus nippon 1992-1993 Undesigned restoration Few remained

Sciurus vulgaris 2000s Human release Few remained

Tamias sibiricus 1980s Human release Sustained

Myocastor coypus 1990s Farming Exterminated around 2000s and reoccurred in 2011

tiens is distributed within montane areas and it is relatively abundant in the north ( Won, 1967; Won, 1968; Yoon et al., 2002).