Search :  

Crocidura luna 

Linguistics
Actual scientific name :   Crocidura luna 
     
Old scientific name :    
     
French name :  
     
English name :   Greater Gray-Brown Musk Shrew ; Moonshine Shrew
     
Vernacular name :  
 
 

Zoology
Call :  
     
Description :   Measures 14,5 cm (with 5,5 cm of tail). Greyish-blue upperparts and lighter underparts. 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. 
     
Habitat :   Forests, savannah.  
     
Behaviour :   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.  
     
Diet :   Insects, other invertebrates and sometimes small vertebrates. 
     
Life history :   Females give birth to litters of 1 to 6 young.
 
     
Distribution in Katanga :   view map  
 
 
History, Ethnology, Sociology
Interactions with humans :    
     
Taboos :    
     
Legends, believes, folklore :    
     
Fishing, hunting :    
     
Feeding :    
     
Breeding, taming :    
     
Uses of skin or other body parts :    
  


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.



+  You are in : ROOT > Vertebrata (Vertebrates) > Mammalia (Mammals) > Insectivora (Insectivores) > Soricidae (shrews)
Design by McArnolds Group SA | Development and code by AMESIS SPRL