The swamp musk shrew (''Crocidura mariquensis''), or musk shrew, is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It occurs in

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Mala ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. Its natural habitat is swamps, and it is a common species in suitable habitats, with the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

listing it as being of "

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

Description

This is a moderate-sized shrew growing to a head-and-body length of about with a tail of around , males being slightly larger than females. The head is long and narrow, with a sharply pointed snout, small eyes and rounded ears. The dorsal pelage is blackish-brown tinged with rust, the individual hairs having greyish bases, brownish bands and brownish-black tips. The ventral surface is paler greyish-brown, there being no clear demarcation between dorsal and ventral fur. The tail is about 70% of the head-and-body length, and is partially haired and some shade of brown, sometimes paler below. Both fore and hind feet are yellowish-brown, reddish-brown or dark brown, and the digits of the hind feet splay apart when the animal is walking. There is considerable variation in colouring over the shrew's range.

Distribution and habitat

The musk shrew is native to southern Africa, where its range extends from

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and the southern

, through

, northeastern

and northern

, to

, southern

and northeastern

. It has a requirement for a wetland habitat and occurs in

reed bed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

s and semi-aquatic vegetation, in the vicinity of rivers and lakes and in seasonally flooded areas, with a marked preference for

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

es and swamps.

Ecology

The musk shrew is mainly

nocturnal Nocturnality is an ethology, animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have ...

, although it may occasionally be active during the day. It clambers around among the aquatic vegetation with agility; it is not aggressive to other members of its species and does not scent mark its surroundings. In captivity it will feed on

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class G ...

s and

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes ( eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blat ...

s, but does not dig into the ground to forage. In its natural surroundings, nests have been observed in grass tussocks and in debris above the surface of the ground. Breeding mostly takes place in the wet season, with litters averaging three to four young. It is predated upon by the

southern fiscal The southern fiscal or fiscal shrike (''Lanius collaris'') is a member of the shrike family found through most of southern Africa. It is also sometimes named jackie hangman or butcher bird due to its habit of impaling its prey on acacia thorns ...

, the

barn owl The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himala ...

and the

African grass owl The African grass owl (''Tyto capensis'') is a species of owl in the barn owl family, Tytonidae. Description The African grass owl resembles the barn owl and has a heart shaped whitish-cream facial disc, with a narrow yellowish-buff rim which ...

Conservation status

This shrew was classified as "

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

" in 2016 by

South African National Bioinformatics Institute The South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) is a non-profit organisation in Cape Town, South Africa dedicated to bioinformatics, biotechnology and genomics in health research. SANBI maintains current collaborations with inst ...

; however, it has a wide range, is presumed to have a stable and large total population, and faces no particular threats, so the

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q611034 Crocidura Mammals of Sub-Saharan Africa Mammals described in 1844 Taxa named by Andrew Smith (zoologist) Taxonomy articles created by Polbot