Christmas Island Shrew
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| Christmas Island Shrew | ||||||||||||||
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| Crocidura trichura Dobson, 1889 |
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Crocidura fuliginosa trichura |
The Christmas Island Shrew (Crocidura trichura), also known as Christmas Island Musk-shrew is an extremely rare or possibly extinct shrew from Christmas Island. It was variously placed as subspecies of the Asian Gray Shrew (Crocidura attenuata) or the Southeast Asian Shrew (Crocidura fuliginosa) (Harper, 1945) but morphological differences and the large distance between the species indicate that it is a distinct species. (Hutterer, 2005) This forest dwelling mammal was first thought to be vanished by 1908 probably due to a black rat introduced trypanosoma disease which is also considered for the extinction of the Maclear's Rat and the Bulldog Rat (Schulz, 2004). Apart from an unconfirmed sighting in 1958 it was rediscovered in 1985 when two specimens were caught. The two individuals later died. Several unconfirmed reports occurred between 1996 and 1998 but a survey undertaken in 2000 failed to find any individuals (Schulz, 2004). Its disappearance in recent times might be caused by the accidentally introduced yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) which is a dangerous threat for many terrestrial animals on Christmas Island(Schulz, 2004).
[edit] References
- Francis Harper (1945): Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World
- David Day (1981): The Doomsday Book of Animals
- Rainer Hutterer in: Wilson/Reeder (2005) Mammal Species of the World
- Michael Schulz (2004) National Recovery Plan for the Christmas Island Shrew Crocidura attenuata trichura. Canberra: Department of the Environment and Heritage, 23 pp.
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