Crocidura douceti Heim de Balsac 1958
Creators: name: Mittermeier, Russell A.
name: Wilson, Don E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Soricomorpha
Soricidae
Crocidura
Crocidura douceti

description: 387. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew <i>Crocidura douceti</i> <b>French:</b> Crocidure de Doucet / <b>German:</b> Doucet-Weilszahnspitzmaus / <b>Spanish:</b> Musarana de Doucet <b>Other common names:</b> Doucet’s Shrew, Doucet’'s Musk Shrew <b>Taxonomy.</b> Crocidura douceti Heim de Balsac, 1958, Adiopodoume, Cote d'Ivoire (= Ivory Coast). Crocidura douceti seems to be sister to C. muricauda and in the C. olivier: group based on genetic data, although additional sampling of more taxa is needed. Monotypic. <b>Distribution.</b> Recorded from SE Guinea and SW Ivory Coast; there also are records from owl pellets from Nigeria, although these are questionable, and a possible record from Mamang River Forest Reserve in Ghana. <b>Descriptive notes.</b> Head—body 50-55 mm, tail 40-45 mm, ear 8 mm, hindfoot 10 mm; weight 4-5 g. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew is a very small shrew. Dorsum is grayish brown to chocolate-brown, and venteris gray to off white. Limbs have pale hairs. Tail is c.80% of head-body length, dark, and thin with small hairs and longer dark bristle hairs. Skull has a short rostrum, dentition is week, and M? is large. There are three unicuspids. <b>Habitat.</b> Relict and riverine forests in savannas and mixed secondary forests, swampy regions, and moist tall grass forests. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrews are often collected in agricultural areas such as cocoa and coffee plantations. <b>Food and Feeding.</b> Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew eats a wide variety of invertebrates but favors arthropods. Analysis of 14 stomach samples in Tai National Park in Ivory Coast found ants (50% frequency), beetles (29%), spiders (29%), termites (29%), and some other minor groups of arthropods. Prey sizes were 3-20 mm, with 80% less than 10 mm. <b>Breeding.</b> No information. <b>Activity patterns.</b> Considering its long tail, Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew might be somewhat scansorial. A nest with two juveniles was found c.10 m off the ground in a cavity of a palm tree, and one individual was captured in a glue trap in the canopy of Tai Forest. <b>Movements, Home range and Social organization.</b> Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew apparently is found in very low densities, but if they are scansorial, trapping might be difficult and underestimate density. <b>Status and Conservation.</b> Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. Doucet’s White-toothed Shrew has a fairly large extent of occurrence (c.105,952 km?) and is known to exist in forested and degraded areas. It might be affected by deforestation. <b>Bibliography.</b> Barriere et al. (2008), Churchfield et al. (2004), Gerrie &amp; Kennerley (20164), Happold (1987), Heim de Balsac &amp; Aellen (1958), Heim de Balsac &amp; Vuattoux (1969), Hutterer &amp; Happold (1983), Jacquet et al. (2013), Nicolas et al. (2009), Vogel et al. (2013).
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 page 531, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6870843