Kelaart's long-clawed shrew (''Feroculus feroculus'') is a species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

in the family Soricidae. It is the only species within the genus ''Feroculus''. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and southern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical dry forests and grassland, and swamps. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. The species is named for zoologist

Edward Frederick Kelaart Lieutenant Colonel Edward Frederick Kelaart (21 November 1819 – 31 August 1860) was a Ceylonese-born physician and naturalist. He made some of the first systematic studies from the region and described many plants and animals from Sri Lanka. B ...

. Head and body length is . Tail is long. Pelage cloe, soft, and short. Uniform ashy-black above, paler and glossy below. Forefeet almost white, very long and reddish claws. Tail covered by fine hairs as well as a few bristly long hairs.

References

Mammals of India Mammals of Sri Lanka White-toothed shrews Mammals described in 1850 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{whitetoothed-shrew-stub