Black and rufous elephant shrew

Black and rufous elephant shrew
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Macroscelidea
Family: Macroscelididae
Genus: Rhynchocyon
Species: R. petersi
Binomial name
Rhynchocyon petersi
Bocage, 1880
Geographic range

The black and rufous elephant shrew,[2] (Rhynchocyon petersi) the black and rufous sengi,[1] or the Zanj elephant shrew[3] is one of the 17 species of elephant shrew found only in Africa.[2] Like other members of the genus Rhynchocyon, it is a relatively large species, with adults averaging about 28 cm (11 in) in length and 450-700 g (1.0-1.5 lb) in weight. It is native to the lowland montane and dense forests of Kenya and Tanzania.[4] It eats insects such as beetles, termites, and centipedes, using its proboscis to dig them from the soil and its tongue to lick them up.[5] It typically builds ground level nests for shelter[6] requiring dry leaf litter[3] often at the base of trees.[7] Like most elephant shrews, it lives in monogamous pairs, defending hectare-sized territories.[8][6]

Distribution of Rhynchocyon petersi in Tanzania. The species is typically limited to small, fragmented forest patches (darker blue) within the Eastern Arc Mountains (blue).

The forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains are critical habitats for R. petersi.[7] The Chome Forest Reserve in Tanzania is an isolated, and largely undisturbed, habitat for the shrews.[7] Populations densities in the Chome area are significantly lower than the surrounding areas, home to approximately 2700 R. petersi, and is thought to be the result of restricted migration and illegal human activity.[7] It was once listed by the IUCN Red List as vulnerable, but has since been changed to a status of least concern.[9] However, its numbers are reportedly declining; suffering from severe forest fragmentation and degradation from human expansion.[9]

Several zoos have begun breeding this elephant shrew, including the Philadelphia Zoo in the United States. Two black and rufous elephant shrew males were born on February 4, 2007, at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

References

  1. 1 2 Rathbun, G. B. & T. M. Butynski. 2008. Rhynchocyon petersi. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. Downloaded on 04 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 Schlitter, D.A. (2005). "Order Macroscelidea". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  3. 1 2 Norbert J. Cordeiro; Nathalie Seddon; David R. Capper; Jonathan M. M. Ekstrom; Kim M. Howell; Isabel S. Isherwood; Charles A. M. Msuya; Jonas T. Mushi; Andrew W. Perkin; Robert G. Pople & William T. Stanley (2005), "Notes on the ecology and status of some forest mammals in four Eastern Arc Mountains", Journal of East African Natural History, 94 (1): 175–189, doi:10.2982/0012-8317(2005)94[175:noteas]2.0.co;2
  4. ↑ G. Rathbun. (1984). Elephant-shrews, Order Macroscelidea. In : MacDonald (ed), The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Facts on File Publications, New York: 730-735.
  5. ↑ J. Kingdon (1997), The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals, Academic Press, pp. 142–152
  6. 1 2 G. B. Rathbun (1979), "The social structure and ecology of elephant-shrews", Journal of Comparative Ethology, 20: 1–77
  7. 1 2 3 4 Stephanie Coster & David O. Ribble (2005), "Density and cover preferences of Black-and-rufous elephant-shrews (Rhynchocyon petersi) in Chome Forest Reserve, Tanzania", Belgian Journal of Zoology, 135: 175–177
  8. ↑ C. D. Fitzgibbon & G. B. Rathbun (1994), "Surveying Rhynchocyon elephant-shrews in tropical forest", African Journal of Ecology, 32: 50–57, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2028.1994.tb00554.x
  9. 1 2 M. Hoffmann, N. Burgess, and F. Rovero. (2016). Rhynchocyon petersi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T19708A21286959. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016- 1.RLTS.T19708A21286959.en
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