Northern Luzon shrew rat
| Northern Luzon shrew rat | ||||||||||||
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Northern Luzon shrew ( Crunomys fallax ), below |
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| Crunomys fallax | ||||||||||||
| Thomas , 1898 |
The northern Luzon shrew rat ( Crunomys fallax ) is a barely researched rodent species from the long-tailed mouse family (Muridae). It is only known from the holotype that was shot in May 1894 by ornithologist John Whitehead in the Sierra Madre Mountains in the province of Isabela in northern Luzon .
features
Neither John Whitehead nor Oldfield Thomas , who described the species in 1898, gave any information about the sex of the holotype. It was not until Guy Musser , in a reconsideration in 1982, that the animal was probably a fully grown male. The total length is given as 185 mm, the rear foot length as 23 mm and the ear length as 10 mm. The weight is unknown. The Northern Luzon shrew rat has small eyes and its tail length is shorter than the head-to-body length . The fur is gray-brown on top and somewhat prickly. The underside is light gray.
Habitat and way of life
John Whitehead discovered the animal in a dry lowland forest near a stream at an altitude of 300 m. A specimen from Mount Cetaceo in the province of Cagayan , mistakenly identified as Crunomys fallax by Lawrence R. Heaney , was found to be Soricomys musseri on reconsideration . Nothing is known about the way of life of this species.
Systematics
The genus Crunomys is closely related to the genus Maxomys . It comprises four species that occur on Luzon, Mindanao and Sulawesi.
status
The IUCN lists the Northern Luzon shrew rat in the “ data deficient ” category . The habitat of this species, the western foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains in northern Luzon, is under severe pressure due to agricultural use and deforestation. Extensive field studies are therefore necessary to determine the exact status of the Northern Luzon shrew rat.
literature
- Oldfield Thomas: On the mammals obtained by Mr John Whitehead during his recent expedition to the Philippines. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 14, 1898: 377-412.
- Lawrence R. Heaney, Danilo S. Balete, Eric A. Rickart: The Mammals of Luzon Island: Biogeography and Natural History of a Philippine Fauna . Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016, p 170, ISBN 978-1421418377 .
Web links
- Crunomys fallax inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016.3. Posted by: Rosalind Kennerley , 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Guy G. Musser: Crunomys and the small-bodied shrew rats native to the Philippine Islands and Sulawesi (Celebes) . Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History; Volume 174, article 1, 1982.
- ↑ Danielsen, F., Balete, DS, Christensen, TD, Heegaard, M., Jakobsen, OF, Jensen, A., Lund, T. and Poulsen, MK 1994. Conservation of biological diversity in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Isabela and Southern Cagayan Province, the Philippines. Birdlife International, Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, Manila.