Crocidura douceti, Heim de Balsac, 1958

Russell A. Mittermeier & Don E. Wilson, 2018, Soricidae, Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 8 Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos, Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, pp. 332-551 : 531

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.6870843

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6870438

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/3D474A54-A0AE-87C2-FFFB-ACF81544FC47

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Crocidura douceti
status

 

387. View Plate 24: Soricidae

Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew

Crocidura douceti View in CoL

French: Crocidure de Doucet / German: Doucet-Weilszahnspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana de Doucet

Other common names: Doucet’s Shrew, Doucet’'s Musk Shrew

Taxonomy. Crocidura douceti Heim de Balsac, 1958 View in CoL ,

Adiopodoume , Cote d'Ivoire (= Ivory Coast).

Crocidura douceti seems to be sister to C. muricauda and in the C. olivier: group based on genetic data, although additional sampling of more taxa is needed. Monotypic.

Distribution. Recorded from SE Guinea and SW Ivory Coast; there also are records from owl pellets from Nigeria, although

these are questionable, and a possible record from Mamang River Forest Reserve in Ghana. View Figure

Descriptive notes. Head—body 50-55 mm, tail 40-45 mm, ear 8 mm, hindfoot 10 mm; weight 4-5 g. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew is a very small shrew. Dorsum is grayish brown to chocolate-brown, and venteris gray to off white. Limbs have pale hairs. Tail is c.80% of head-body length, dark, and thin with small hairs and longer dark bristle hairs. Skull has a short rostrum, dentition is week, and M? is large. There are three unicuspids.

Habitat. Relict and riverine forests in savannas and mixed secondary forests, swampy regions, and moist tall grass forests. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrews are often collected in agricultural areas such as cocoa and coffee plantations.

Food and Feeding. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew eats a wide variety of invertebrates but favors arthropods. Analysis of 14 stomach samples in Tai National Park in Ivory

Coast found ants (50% frequency), beetles (29%), spiders (29%), termites (29%), and some other minor groups of arthropods. Prey sizes were 3-20 mm, with 80% less than 10 mm.

Breeding. No information.

Activity patterns. Considering its long tail, Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew might be somewhat scansorial. A nest with two juveniles was found c.10 m off the ground in a cavity of a palm tree, and one individual was captured in a glue trap in the canopy of Tai Forest.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew apparently is found in very low densities, but if they are scansorial, trapping might be difficult and underestimate density.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew has a fairly large extent of occurrence (c.105,952 km?) and is known to exist in forested and degraded areas. It might be affected by deforestation.

Bibliography. Barriere et al. (2008), Churchfield et al. (2004), Gerrie & Kennerley (20164), Happold (1987), Heim de Balsac & Aellen (1958), Heim de Balsac & Vuattoux (1969), Hutterer & Happold (1983), Jacquet et al. (2013), Nicolas et al. (2009), Vogel et al. (2013).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Soricomorpha

Family

Soricidae

Genus

Crocidura

Loc

Crocidura douceti

Russell A. Mittermeier & Don E. Wilson 2018
2018
Loc

Crocidura douceti

Heim de Balsac 1958
1958
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