Crocidura telfordi, Hutterer, 1986
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.6870843 |
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DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6870349 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/3D474A54-A05F-873C-FAE4-AC5C11B0FBF2 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Crocidura telfordi |
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Telford’s White-toothed Shrew
Crocidura telfordi View in CoL
French: Crocidure de Telford / German: Telford-Weifl 3zahnspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana de Telford
Other common names: Telford's Shrew
Taxonomy. Crocidura telfordi Hutterer, 1986 View in CoL , Morningside , 1150 m, Uluguru Mountains , Tanzania.
Considered to be a part of a group of shrews endemic to the Eastern Arc Mountains. On morphological characters more closely related to C. lanosa than to C. monax , according to R. Hutterer in 1986. W. T. Stanley and others in 2015 included C. telfordi in a phylogenetic tree estimated from Bayesian analysis (cytochrome-b); it
was placed as sister species to C. turba and more distantly related to C. lanosa and C. maurisca . There is a need to review the taxonomic relationship of populations from the Uluguru Mountains and the Udzungwa Mountains to determine whether they are a single, or two distinct, species. Monotypic.
Distribution. Endemic to Eastern Arc Mts in Tanzania (Uluguru and Udzungwa Mts), at elevations of ¢.600-1150 m. View Figure
Descriptive notes. Head-body 104-108 mm, tail 70-83 mm, ear 9-10 mm, hindfoot 19-20 mm; weight 16-5-22 g. This very large shrew with soft (5-6 mm) chocolate brown pelage differs from all other shrews of the C. monax group by its enormous skull; it also has a longer tail and hindfeet than other shrews of this group in Tanzania. Dorsal pelage is chocolate brown, with hairs silvery at base and brown attip; ventral part is slightly paler brown than dorsal pelage. Vibrissae long, and ears prominent with a few hairs. Foreand hindfeet are paler than dorsal pelage; hindfeet are comparatively long (17-19% of head-body length) and the relatively long tail (65-85% of head-body length) is slightly bicolored, with only 5% pilosity. Details of nipples unknown. Skull very large and elongated, flat and wide. Upper tooth row long with gracile teeth and a very small M’. Cutting edge of the lower incisor only slightly wavy, without significant denticulation. In skull morphology it is similar to that of the Kivu Long-haired White-toothed Shrew ( C. lanosa ), which also possesses an elongated skull with broad maxillar and cranial profile. Condylo-incisive length: 25.8-26-1 mm.
Habitat. Undisturbed orslightly disturbed moist tropical montane forest. Not found in smaller patches of disturbed forest or in agricultural areas.
Food and Feeding. No information.
Breeding. A single adult female collected in August-September from Udzungwa Mountains was not pregnant. One male collected in August-September from the Uluguru Mountains had testis length of 4 mm and width of 3 mm.
Activity patterns. Telford’s White-toothed Shrews are terrestrial and both nocturnal and diurnal.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. In the Udzungwa Scarp Forest Telford’s White-toothed Shrew was the least represented shrew (1%) out of 145 shrews sampled. Two specimens were captured at 600 m and 910 m, respectively, together with the Elgon White-toothed Shrew ( C. elgonius ), Hildegarde’s White-toothed Shrew ( C. hildegardeae ), the African Giant White-toothed Shrew ( C. olivieri ), and the Greater Dwarf Shrew ( Suncus lixa ).
Status and Conservation. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List because its extent of occurrence is estimated to be only 10,184 km?, all its individuals occur at fewer than five locations, and there is a continuing decline in the extent and quality of its habitat in the Uluguru Mountains. Telford’s White-toothed Shrew is threatened by forest loss in the Uluguru Mountains, largely through logging and conversion of land to agricultural use. It has been recorded from some forest reserves. There is a need to prevent further habitat loss and degradation within the restricted range of this species. Additional studies are needed into the species’ natural history and taxonomy.
Bibliography. Hutterer (1986¢, 2005b), Kennerley (2016j), Nicoll & Rathbun (1990), Stanley (2013f), Stanley & Hutterer (2007), Stanley, Hutterer et al. (2015), Stanley, Kihaule et al. (1998).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
