The Sanetti shrew or Bekele's shrew (''Crocidura afeworkbekelei'') 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
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
.
Etymology
Its
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 ...
honors Ethiopian
mammalogist In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous system
In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part ...
Afework Bekele.
Distribution and habitat
This species is thought to be endemic to the
Bale Mountains of the
Sanetti Plateau
The Sanetti Plateau is a major plateau of the Ethiopian Highlands, in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The plateau is the highest part of the Bale Mountains, and is located within Bale Mountains National Park.L.J.G. van der Maesen, X.M. van der Bu ...
in southwestern Ethiopia. It inhabits the
Afromontane
The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...
zone with low and scattered vegetation, at about 4,000 meters above sea level.
Description
It is a small shrew, with the head-body length being between , the length of the tail being between , the length of the feet between , and the length of the ears between . The dorsal
pelage
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily #Guard hair, guard hair on top and thick #Down hair, underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as ...
is greyish-brown with the base of the hairs being gray, while the ventral pelage is gray with light yellowish tips. The back of the legs is light gray. The feet are slightly elongated. The tail, between 50.6 and 61.5% of the head-body length, is brown above, brownish-gray below and interspersed with long bristles.
Conservation status
No threats have presently been documented for this species, and it is 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 ...
.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q27902011
Crocidura
Mammals of Ethiopia
Endemic fauna of Ethiopia
Mammals described in 2016