Sorex altoensis
Creators: name: Mittermeier, Russell A.
name: Wilson, Don E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Soricomorpha
Soricidae
Sorex
Sorex altoensis

description: 36. Alto Shrew <i>Sorex altoensis</i> <b>French:</b> Musaraigne de Carraway / <b>German:</b> Alto-Spitzmaus / <b>Spanish:</b> Musarana de altitud <b>Taxonomy.</b> Sorex veraecrucis altoensis Carraway, 2007, “ Volcan de Fuego, 9800 ft. [= 2987 my], Jalisco, latitude 19-55°N, longitude 103-63°W.” Sorex altoensis was originally described as a subspecies of S. veraecrucis and was later included in S. salvini. Exact placement of S. altoensis is currently unresolved because it is morphologically most similar to S. saussurei, which it was included in before it was described in 2007. Sorex altoensis is recognized as a distinct species in the saussurei group because some populations attributed to it (under the name S. veraecrucis by M. Esteva and colleagues in 2010) clustered genetically closest to S. saussurei. Sorex altoensis is also morphologically distinguishable from S. veraecrucis, S. salvini, and S. saussurei. Monotypic. <b>Distribution.</b> Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental, connecting S of the mountains, including Durango, Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Querétaro, Hidalgo, México, Puebla, Distrito Federal, Morelos, Guerrero, and Oaxaca (Mexico). <b>Descriptive notes.</b> Head-body 60-76 mm, tail 38-54 mm, ear 9-5 mm, hindfoot 12— 14 mm; weight 6 g. The Alto Shrew is medium-sized. Dorsum is medium brown, and venteris grayish blond/white. Tail is 60-70% of head-body length, shorter than that of the Veracruz Shrew (S. veraecrucis) and is uniformly medium brown. Lowerfirst incisors have shallow interdenticular spaces and are pigmented in one section. There are five unicuspids, first and second being large, third being barely smaller than fourth, and fifth being minute. Teeth are pigmented dark red. <b>Habitat.</b> High-elevation pine-oak-juniper woodlands, yellow pine and alder woodlands, or moist montane canyons with pine and oak or Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii, Pinaceae) and juniper woodlands with shrubby understories of Baccharis and Senecio (Asteraceae) at elevations of 2100-3650 m. Alto Shrews have also been recorded in high-elevation corn and oat fields. <b>Food and Feeding.</b> No information. <b>Breeding.</b> A female Alto Shrew with two embryos was collected in August. <b>Activity patterns.</b> No information. <b>Movements, Home range and Social organization.</b> No information. <b>Status and Conservation.</b> Not assessed on The [UCN Red List. The Alto Shrew has a wide distribution and seems to adapt well to agriculture, although localized deforestation might be a threat. The Veracruz Shrew, in which it was previously included, waslisted as Least Concern, which might apply to the Alto Shrew because its distribution makes up most of the distribution previously allocated to the Veracruz Shrew. <b>Bibliography.</b> Carraway (2007, 2014k), Esteva et al. (2010), Woodman et al. (2012).
description: Published as part of <i>Russell A. Mittermeier &amp; Don E. Wilson, 2018, Soricidae, pp. 332-551 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 8 Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions</i> on pages 406-407, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6870843