Graphiurus crassicaudatus
Creators: name: Don E. Wilson
name: Thomas E. Lacher, Jr
name: Russell A. Mittermeier
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Rodentia
Gliridae
Graphiurus
Graphiurus crassicaudatus

description: 2.
Thick-tailed African Dormouse
Graphiurus crassicaudatus
French: Loir de Jentink / German: Jentink-Bilch / Spanish: Lirén de cola gruesa
Other common names: Jentink's African Dormouse
Taxonomy. Claviglis crassicaudatus Jentink, 1888,
Hill Town, Du Queah River, Liberia.
Placed in the subgenus Claviglis. Based on external appearance, this species is somewhat similar to G. walterverheyeni, but it is much larger in body size and differs in cranial proportions. In 1969, D. R. Rosevear and M. E. Holden in 1996 hypothesized that morphological similarity between G. crassicaudatus and G. nagtglasu reflected a close phylogenetic relationship between the two species. A cladistic analysis of African dormice based on cranial and middle ear characters by I. Y. Pavlinov & E. G. Potapova in 2003, however, does not support this contention; their study showed that the characters shared by G. crassicaudatus and G. nagtglasii may be primitive for the genus and that G. crassicaudatus shares certain derived characters with other species of Graphiurus. Graphiurus walterverheyeni was not yet described when Pavlinov and Potapova’s analysis was performed; based on cranial traits, Holden and R. S. Levine in 2009 postulated a close relationship between G. crassicaudatus and G. walterverheyeni. Graphiurus crassicaudatus have not been recorded from DR Congo; in 2008, P. Grubb and D. A. Schlitter noted an unidentified example of Graphiurus in the British Museum from southern DR Congo that was previously thought to represent G. crassicaudatus, the specimen they referred tois likely the same specimen described later by Holden and Levine in 2009 as the holotype of G. walterverheyeni. In 2009, Holden and Levine discussed the validity of the record of G. crassicaudatus from Bioko I. Monotypic.
Distribution. W & C Africa, from Liberia and SW Guinea E to SW Cameroon and Bioko I, but excluding Benin.
Descriptive notes. Head-body 83-98 mm, tail 55-70 mm, ear 11-14 mm, hindfoot 16-19 mm; weight 20-29 g. No information regarding sexual dimorphism has been reported. Dorsal pelage of the Thick-tailed African Dormouse is rufous brown or copper. Fur is soft and short, rump hairs are 4-5 mm, and guard hairs are up to 10 mm. Ventral pelage is gray washed with ocher, cream, or white, and dorsal and ventral pelage colors are clearly delineated. Eyes are large, and eye mask is conspicuous in some individuals, although others have only narrow dark eye-rings. Cheeks are paler than dorsal pelage. Ears are brown, short, and rounded, and post-auricular patches are usually not present. Hindfeet are solid white or white with dark metatarsal streak. The Thicktailed African Dormouse has one oftherelatively shortesttails in the genus, ¢.65%of head-body length. Tail hairs are shorter at base, 3-4 mm, with longer hairs toward tip, up to 27 mm. Tail ofthe type specimen was shed during injury, an exampleofthefalse tail autotomy exhibited by most species of Gliridae. Dense, bushy regrowth oftail hairs makestail appear thicker than normal; tail has been described as “club-shaped,” hence the scientific name. Color ofdorsal and ventral surfaces oftail generally matches that of dorsum and does not exhibit white tip. Greatest length ofskull is 26-7-29-7 mm, zygomatic breadth is 13-3-16-7 mm, and upper tooth row length is 3-3-3 mm. Chromosome number is not known. Females usually have four pairs of nipples (I pectoral + I abdominal + 2 inguinal = 8), a female with only two pairs (0 pectoral + 0 abdominal + 2 inguinal = 4) has been reported.
Habitat. Most often encountered in or near primary and secondary rainforest of moist evergreen or moist semideciduous tropical broadleafforest, and Guinean savannaforest mosaic fromsea level to ¢.600 m. Thick-tailed African Dormice might also inhabit cultivated areas and buildings. Individuals from south-western Cameroon were captured on vines and horizontal branches in secondary high forest and no hollow trees were seen in the immediate area. In southern Nigeria, one individual was collected in secondary rainforest characterized by regrowth of limba (Terminalia superba, Combretaceae), African plum (Dacryodes sp., Burseraceae), African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Arecaceae), and abura trees (Mitragyna sp., Rubiaceae); most trees were young with diameters less than 30 cm.
Food and Feeding. Cheekteeth of the Thick-tailed African Dormouse have relatively large occlusal surface area compared with other species of African dormice. It has been reported that individuals in south-western Cameroon were attracted by nuts from the African oil palm used for bait.
Breeding. Litter size of two young was recorded from oneindividual. Thick-tailed African Dormice breed readily in captivity; one pregnant female from Eseka, Cameroon, captured in October had two embryos and the same specimen was found to have only four mammae, rather than eight.
Activity patterns. There is no specific information available for this species, but the Thick-tailed African Dormiceis likely nocturnal.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Thick-tailed African Dormice are likely arboreal and solitary. Densities are probably low within suitable habitat. In Nigeria, only one Thick-tailed African Dormouse (0-4%) was caught out of 238 arboreal species captured.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List. This reflects lack of information on extent ofdistribution, natural history, and potential threats. World Wildlife Fund in 2015 classified ecoregions inhabited by Thick-tailed African Dormice as critically endangered. Threats to this forest dwelling species are anthropogenic; population pressures have extensively altered original forest formations since Colonial times. Logging and agriculture have decimated forests in some areas and left small fragments in others, and even protected areas have been modified by historical and recent human activities. There are several important forest reserves in its distribution, although civil conflict has resultedin increased logging activity within some protected areas, and there is a lack of priority being placed on conservation within certain areas ofthis region. Another threat to mostly large but occasionally small mammals in this region includes hunting of bushmeat.
Bibliography. Amori & Gippoliti (2002), Angelici & Luiselli (2005), Denys et al. (2014), Dollman (1912), Grubb & Schlitter (2008b), Holden (1996b, 2013), Holden & Levine (2009), Pavlinov & Potapova (2003), Robbins & Schlitter (1981), Rosevear (1969), WWF (2015).
description: Published as part of Don E. Wilson, Thomas E. Lacher, Jr & Russell A. Mittermeier, 2016, Gliridae, pp. 838-889 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 6 Lagomorphs and Rodents I, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 840-841, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6604339