Crocidura flavescens (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827)
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.6870843 |
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DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6878358 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/3D474A54-A0AF-87C3-FF21-AD3F15DCF9A1 |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Crocidura flavescens |
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Greater Red White-toothed Shrew
Crocidura flavescens View in CoL
French: Crocidure blonde / German: Sidafrika-Riesenweil 3zahnspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana roja mayor
Other common names: Greater Red Musk Shrew
Taxonomy. Sorex flavescens I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827 ,
“La Cafrerie et le pays des Hottentots” (= King William’s Town, South Africa).
Crocidura flavescens seems to be sister to C. hrta and in the C. olivieri group, although additional sampling is needed to confirm this relationship. Monotypic.
Distribution. Coastal and E South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and S Mozambique. View Figure
Descriptive notes. Head-body 81- 117 mm, tail 36-58 mm, ear 9-11 mm, hindfoot 13-16 mm; weight 20-40 g. The Greater Red White-toothed Shrew is very large. Dorsal pelage is fawn to cinnamonbrown (hairs are slate-gray basally, with pale subterminal band and brown tips), and ventral pelage is pale gray or yellowish gray (hairs have dark gray bases and off white to pale yellow tips); dorsum and venter merge relatively abruptly on flanks. Feet are fawn-colored. Tail is ¢.49% of head-body length, covered with sparse bristle hairs, and bicolored, being brown above and pale gray below. Females have six inguinal nipples. There are three unicuspids. Chromosomal complement has 2n = 50 and FN = 74.
Habitat. Variety of habitats, such as fynbos (shrubland or heathland), grasslands (montane, temperate, and subtropical), coastal forest, woodlands, savanna, and disturbed habitats where water is plentiful. Greater Red White-toothed Shrews are semi-commensal and will enter human dwellings and gardens. They typically occur at low elevations but can be found in low numbers at higher elevations up to 1500 m.
Food and Feeding. Greater Red White-toothed Shrews feed rather opportunistically on invertebrates and some vertebrates, occasionally feeding on carrion of small vertebrates; they are occasionally cannibalistic. They eat a wide variety of insects, snails, earthworms, reptiles, and small rodents and shrews. They feed very aggressively and attack prey voraciously, which allows them to take down larger vertebrate prey. Coprophagy by licking the rectum has been observed.
Breeding. Greater Red White-toothed Shrews are pregnant in the late dry season and wet season (August—April) and occur at highest densities in October-December. Reproduction might be partially triggered by shorter daylength because reproductive fitness increases with shorter photoperiods. When mating, “flehmen display” occurs when the male sniffs anogenital region of the female and then chases her for up to 35 minutes. The chase ends when the female stops and the male attempts to mount her, but the female might keep running. The male will eventually bite the female’s rump, and she will stop, allowing copulation, which lasts ¢.7 seconds for successful insemination. When the male loosens his grip after ejaculation, the female will move off, dragging the male by the penis for a small amount of time. The female then generally becomes aggressive toward the male. The male will bite the female’s mid-back during this time. Gestation lasts ¢.28 days, and litters average 3-6 young, four being typical. Young are naked, blind, and helpless at birth but develop very fast. They start walking at ¢.5 days old, they are weaned at 18-22 days, full pelage is developed by c.14 days old, and eyes and ears open at c.12 days old. Caravanning has been observed and occurs up to c.16 days after birth. Adult size is reaches at 28 days old, at which time young leave nests. Females have postpartum estrus, and litters are commonly conceived consecutively. Females foster young that are not their own because they do not recognize whether young are theirs or not. Maturity is generally reached at ¢.90 days old but can occur as early as 28 days when young reach adult size. Greater Red White-toothed Shrews live c.14-18 months in the wild and c.2-5 years in captivity, which is relatively long for a shrew.
Activity patterns. Greater Red White-toothed Shrews are primarily nocturnal but can be found foraging during the day. They are most active during dawn, with smaller peak at dusk. This is opposite to activity pattern of the Lesser Red White-toothed Shrew ( C. hirta ), indicating some degree of temporal separation between these two species. Greater Red White-toothed Shrews often enter spontaneous torpor during times of hardship. Nests are spherical or saucer-shaped and generally are placed in rock crevices or under some sort of cover.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Greater Red White-toothed Shrews are highly aggressive and territorial toward conspecifics and probably mark territories by scent marking using their lateral, chin, and anogenital glands and their fecal piles, which are strongly scented. They use a variety of vocalizations similar to other species of shrews. These include loud squeaks when alarmed, squeaks interspersed with “chirrs” or chittering sounds during aggressive encounters, chittering between females and their young, and soft and repetitive squeaks while foraging. The Greater Red White-toothed Shrew apparently does not useits ultrasonic vocalizations for echolocation like some other species of shrews. Grooming is done with hindfeet for scratching, forefeet for face washing, and tongue for licking pelage.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Greater Red White-toothed Shrew has to a wide distribution and is considered common throughout much ofit. It is one of the most well-studied species of shrews in Africa and is more commensal with humans than most other shrews on the continent.
Bibliography. Baxter (1977 1993, 1996), Baxter & Irwin (1995), Baxter & Meester (1982), Baxter et al. (1979b), Cassola (2016av), Hirakawa & Haberl (1998), Hoole et al. (2016), Jacquet et al. (2013), Meester (1963), Monadjem (1997), Taylor (1998), Vogel et al. (2013).
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.
