The Mindanao treeshrew (''Tupaia everetti''), also called the Philippine tree shrew, is a species of

treeshrew The treeshrews (also called tree shrews or banxrings) are small mammals native to the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. They make up the entire order Scandentia (from Latin ''scandere'', "to climb"), which split into two families: the ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

region in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It was formerly considered the only member of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Urogale'', but that genus was merged into '' Tupaia'' when the species was found to nest within the latter genus in a

molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

. The scientific name commemorates British colonial administrator and zoological collector

Alfred Hart Everett Alfred Hart Everett (11 October 1848 – 18 June 1898) was a British civil servant and administrator in Borneo as well as being a naturalist and natural history collector. Career Everett was born on Norfolk Island to British parents: George, the ...

Range and habitat

It is found, as its name suggests, in Mindanao, in the Philippines. It lives in

rain forest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

and

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

Description

It is the heaviest treeshrew, weighing about 355 g, and is

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

.Napier JR, Napier PH. (1968) A handbook of living primates. Morphology, ecology and behaviour of nonhuman primates. Academic, London The body is 17–20 cm, and the tail is 11–17 cm. It has a particularly elongated snout and a rounded, even-haired tail. The fur is brownish, but with orange or yellow underparts. It is diurnal in its habits, and it climbs well and runs fast on the ground.

Diet

Its diet is varied. It includes insects, lizards, young birds, bird's eggs, and fruit.

Reproduction

In the wild, it is thought to nest on the ground or on cliffs. Their breeding habits have been observed in captivity, where females have produced one or two young after a gestation period of 54–56 days.

References

*''Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia'' Mammals described in 1892 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Mammals of the Philippines Treeshrews Endemic fauna of the Philippines Fauna of Mindanao {{mammal-stub