| Linguistics |
| Actual scientific name : |
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Suncus lixus |
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| Old scientific name : |
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| French name : |
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| English name : |
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Greater Dwarf Shrew |
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| Zoology |
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| Description : |
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Suncus lixus measures between 11 and 12 cm long (with a tail ranging from 4 to 5 cm) and weighs 5 g. Greyish-brown upperparts and silvery-fawn underparts. Tail is brown above and lighter below. Musk shrews have a long, thin and tapered snout covered with sensorial hairs (vibrissae). Eyes are small and ears are round. Have scent glands on their flanks. Tail is sparsely covered with prominent vibrissae. |
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| Habitat : |
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Forests, plains, savannah. |
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| Behaviour : |
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Suncus lixus often occupy abandoned anthills. Musk shrews have a fast metabolism and ingest, per day, a quantity equivalent to the double of their mass. Active day and night, alternating foraging activities and rest periods. Constantly move their snouts to search for food in the ground. Live solitary and actively defend their territories.
Live for about a year. |
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| Diet : |
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Invertebrates (mostly insects), seeds. |
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| Life history : |
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After about 20 days of gestation, females usually give birth to 3 young. |
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| Distribution in Katanga : |
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Warning :
This database was established according to official pieces of work and with the help of famous scientists. However, there might be some errors.
The vernacular names were collected in the field and in the colonial literature from the first part of the 20th century. The monks who established the first dictionaries were not necessarily informed naturalists. Therefore, errors must have been committed.
We invite everyone who could help us to improve this working tool to contact us in order to correct us and share her/his knowledge with us.
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ROOT > Vertebrata (Vertebrates) > Mammalia (Mammals) > Insectivora (Insectivores) > Soricidae (shrews)
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