The Fingui white-toothed shrew or Principe white-toothed shrew (''Crocidura fingui'') 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

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 ...

to the island of

Príncipe Príncipe is the smaller, northern major island of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of (including offshore islets) and a population of 7,324 at the 2012 Census;

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...

Taxonomy

Previously thought to be an insular population of

Fraser's musk shrew Fraser's musk shrew (''Crocidura poensis'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Its nat ...

(''C. poensis''), a species common throughout much of mainland

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

, a 2015 morphological and phylogenetic analysis found it to be a distinct (although closely related) species, and described it as such. It is one of two '' Crocidura'' species endemic to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, the other being the

São Tomé shrew The São Tomé shrew (''Crocidura thomensis'') is a white-toothed shrew about long found only on São Tomé Island, São Tomé and Príncipe. It is listed as a critically endangered species due to habitat loss and a restricted range. It was disc ...

(''C. thomensis''). The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

, ''fingui'', is the name of this species in

Principense Creole Principense Creole, also called ''lunguyê'' creole ("creole of the island") by its native speakers, is a Portuguese creole language spoken by a community of some four thousand people in São Tomé and Príncipe, specifically on the island of Pr� ...

, a local language.

Description

It has a head-to-rump length of and a tail between 49% and 70% of the body length. Both the pelage and skin are dark in coloration.

Status

Little is known about this species, and it is thus classified as

Data Deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

. However, it may face a significant threat by predation from

feral cats A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

(''Felis catus''), as with ''C. thomensis''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20053594 Crocidura Endemic fauna of Príncipe Mammals of West Africa Mammals described in 2015