The lesser long-tailed shrew tenrec (''Microgale longicaudata'') 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 Tenrecidae. It is active at all hours of the day and night, but each individual maintains its own pattern of rest and activity.

Range and Habitat

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 ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. Its natural habitats are subtropical and tropical moist lowland and

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

forests.

Description

As its name implies, it occupies the ecological niche filled by shrews in other parts of the world. The coat is short, but dense, and quite lacking in the spines so common in this family. The long tail is prehensile. Its body is 5–15 cm long, with the tail being 7.5–17 cm long.

Diet

Although it climbs well, it usually mostly forages on the forest floor for soil invertebrates like grubs, worms and small insects.

Reproduction

Little is known, but they are believed to produce litters of 2-4 young. They do not appear to hibernate at all.

References

Afrosoricida Mammals of Madagascar Mammals described in 1882 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{afrosoricida-stub