Represented by a single specimen, the Mount Elgon mole shrew (''Surdisorex schlitteri'') is a species of African mole shrew known to date only from the ericaceous zone of

Mount Elgon Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda.

Western Kenya After the 2013 general election, and the coming into effect of the new constitution, provinces became defunct and the country was now divided into 47 counties. Each county has its own government and therefore there is no central regional cap ...

. In 1984, a specimen of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Surdisorex ''Surdisorex'' is a genus of mammals in the family Soricidae. ''Surdisorex'' is one of three genera of African shrews, which, in turn, are one of three living subfamilies of shrews. Species in the genus ''Surdisorex'' are called African mole s ...

'' was collected on a footpath at of the Kenyan slope of Mount Elgon. It was described as the third member of the genus ''Surdisorex'' by Kerbis Peterhans in 2009. On the basis of skull length measurements, ''Surdisorex schlitteri'' is intermediate between ''S. norae'' and ''S. polulus'' in size. The scientific name honors Duane Schlitter, in recognition of his substantial contributions to the understanding of African small mammals and his longstanding support of Kenyan scientific research. The Mount Elgon mole shrew is listed 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 ...

" because it is only known from a single specimen. The genus ''

'' represents Kenya's only

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 ...

genus 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 ...

and, prior to the description of the Mount Elgon mole shrew, the genus included two species from the highlands of central Kenya: the Aberdare mole shrew (''S. norae'') restricted to the

Aberdare Range The Aberdare Range (formerly the Sattima Range, Kikuyu: ''Nyandarua'') is a 160 km (100 mile) long mountain range of upland, north of Kenya's capital Nairobi with an average elevation of . It straddles across the counties of Nyandarua, Nye ...

and the Mount Kenya mole shrew (''S. polulus'') restricted to

Mount Kenya Mount Kenya (Kikuyu: ''Kĩrĩnyaga'', Kamba, ''Ki Nyaa'') is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (), Nelion () and Point Lenana (). Mount Kenya is locat ...

References

Shrews Surdisorex Mammals of Kenya Endemic fauna of Kenya {{Shrew-stub