Christmas Island shrew

The Christmas Island Shrew ( Crocidura trichura ) is an extremely rare or already extinct shrew from the kind of white toothed shrews. She felt on Christmas Island.

Features

The Christmas Island Shrew reached a head-body length of 65-82 mm, a tail length of 63 to 75mm, a Hinterfußlänge 13 to 17 mm and a weight from 4.5 to 6.0 grams. The hairy coat was light or reddish brown to dark gray.

Way of life

The Christmas Island Shrew was a rainforest dwellers. She lived in rock holes or under tree roots and fed mainly on beetles. In the night there came a shrill, squeaky reputation, which was already heard from a distance.

Inventory and risk

In their discovery in the 1880s, the Christmas Island Shrew has been described as frequent and widespread. This changed, however, when the end of the 19th century, the forests were cleared on Christmas Island. With the settlers house rats came to the island, the einschleppten the trypanosome pathogens. The trypanosomes are the major causes for the extinction of Maclear Rat and the Christmas Island Rat and the Christmas Island Shrew 1908 was considered extinct. Apart from an unconfirmed sighting in 1958, it came in 1985 to rediscovery. Two specimens were captured, but later died. Between 1996 and 1998 there should have been several unconfirmed sightings. In intensive search in 2000, but no more copy could be detected. The disappearance of this shrew recently could ( gracilipes Anoplolepis ) related to the Yellow Spinner ant, which is a deadly threat to many animal species on Christmas Island. The IUCN classified the species in the category of " critically endangered ( possibly extinct )" ( critically endangered ( Possibly Extinct ) ) a.

System

The Christmas Island Shrew was temporarily as a subspecies of the eyelashes shrew ( Crocidura attenuata ) or the type Crocidura fuliginosa considered. However, morphological differences between taxa and the great distances between the distribution areas suggest rather to a separate species.