The greater long-tailed shrew tenrec (''Microgale principula'') is a species of

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

in the family Tenrecidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist forests.

Distribution and habitat

The greater long-tailed shrew tenrec is found in eastern Madagascar at altitudes between above sea level, its range extending from

Marojejy Marojejy National Park () is a national park in the Sava region of northeastern Madagascar. It covers and is centered on the Marojejy Massif, a mountain chain that rises to an elevation of . Access to the area around the massif was restricted t ...

southwards to

Andohahela The Andohahela National Park is situated in Anosy in the south-east of Madagascar. It is remarkable for the extremes of habitats that are represented within it. The park covers of the Anosy mountain range, the southernmost spur of the Malagasy H ...

. It is an

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

species and is found in both primary and somewhat degraded humid forests.

Andrahomana Cave

The greater long-tailed shrew tenrec is one of eight species of ''

Microgale ''Microgale'' is a genus of mammal in the family Tenrecidae. There are 21 living species on the island of Madagascar and one extinct species known from a fossil. Some species have been discovered in the last twenty years. On the basis of molecul ...

'' tenrecs whose remains have been found in deposits in caverns at Andrahomana on the southern coast of Madagascar alongside the bones of extinct birds including

elephant bird Elephant birds are extinct flightless birds belonging to the Order (biology), order Aepyornithiformes that were native to the island of Madagascar. They are thought to have gone extinct around 1000 CE, likely as a result of human activity. Eleph ...

s and

Malagasy sheldgoose The Malagasy sheldgoose (''Centrornis majori'') is an extinct monotypic species of large goose in the shelduck subfamily. It was described from subfossil remains radiocarbon dated to about 17,000 years ago, found in central Madagascar ...

. The latter, a waterbird, indicates that a large body of fresh water may have been nearby and moister conditions were probably present in the past. The creatures may have fallen into the cave system through "skylights" in the roof. The cave is outside the present day range of the greater long-tailed shrew tenrec.

Status

Besides the risk of

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

, the main threats faced by the greater long-tailed shrew tenrec are destruction of its forest habitat by logging and by its conversion into agricultural land. However the animal's range is wide, it is common in many places and presumably has a large total population, and it is present in a number of protected areas, so the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

References

Afrosoricida Mammals of Madagascar Mammals described in 1926 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{afrosoricida-stub