Long-tailed Shrew
| Long-tailed Shrew[1] | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Soricomorpha |
| Family: | Soricidae |
| Genus: | Sorex |
| Species: | S. dispar |
| Binomial name | |
| Sorex dispar Batchelder, 1911 |
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| Long-tailed Shrew range | |
| Synonyms | |
The Long-tailed Shrew or Rock Shrew (Sorex dispar) is a small North American shrew found in Atlantic Canada and the north-eastern United States.
This shrew is slate grey in colour with a pointed snout, a long tail and lighter underparts. It is found on rocky slopes in mountainous areas along the Atlantic coast from Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec and Cape Breton Island,Nova Scotia to northern Georgia. It eats insects and spiders. Predators include hawks, owls, and snakes.
The northernmost examples of this species were until recently thought to be a separate species, the Gaspé Shrew (S. gaspensis) inhabiting the Gaspé Peninsula and Cape Beton Island. However, a 2004 study[3] indicated that the two species were conspecific, with the long-tailed shrew exhibiting a cline towards a smaller size at the northern edge of its range. They are now generally accepted to be the same species, with gaspensis a junior synonym and not even a subspecies.
[edit] References
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Wikispecies has information related to: Sorex dispar |
- ^ Hutterer, Rainer (16 November 2005). Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M.. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). pp. 287. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3.
- ^ Whittaker, J.C., Hammerson, G., Master, L. & Norris, S.J. (2008). "Sorex dispar". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/41394. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- ^ Rhymer, J. M. , Barbay, J. M. and Givens, H. L. 2004. Taxonomic relationship between Sorex dispar and S. gaspensis: inferences from mitochondrial DNA sequences. Journal of Mammalogy 85: 331-337.
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