298. Whitaker's White-toothed Shrew Crocidura whitakeri French: Crocidure de Whitaker / German: Whitaker \WeiRzahnspitzmaus / Spanish: Musarana de Whitaker Other common names: Lesser Maghrebi Shrew, Whitaker's Shrew Taxonomy. Crocidura (Crocidura) whitakeri de Winton, 1898, “ Sierzet, about halfway between Morocco city [= Marrakech] and Mogador [= Essaouira],” Morocco. This species is monotypic. Distribution. Mediterranean NW Africa from NW Western Sahara E to Tunisia, along with some isolated records from N Egypt around the Nile Delta. It might be widely and continuously distributed from Morocco to Egypt, and there are possible records from Libya that are labeled as Greater White-toothed Shrew (C. russula). Descriptive notes. Head-body 56-64 mm, tail 28-39 mm, ear 8-11 mm, hindfoot 11-13 mm; weight 5-7 g. Whitaker's White-toothed Shrew is small, with short and silky pelage. Dorsal pelage is buffy brown, flecked with white (speckled in holotype); hairs are ash-gray at bases with subterminal bands of white and brownish tips. Ventral pelage is whitish; hairs are gray on basal one-half and white on terminal one-half. Feet are pale or white on upper and lower surfaces. Tail is ¢.50% of head-body length, pale above, whitish below, and covered with bristle hairs. Skull is relatively flat, with long rostrum. Third unicuspid is smaller than second but about the samesize as well-developed parastyle on upper premolar. There are three unicuspids. Habitat. Apparently dependent on dry and stony habitats with sparse vegetation (i.e. steppe or sub-deserts) but also sandy coastal dunes from sea level up to elevations of c.1800 m. Food and Feeding. No information. Breeding. No information. Activity patterns. Whitaker's White-toothed Shrews are terrestrial and mainly nocturnal. Movements, Home range and Social organization. Whitaker's White-toothed Shrew shelters among rocks and in rodent burrows. Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. Although relatively common, Whitaker’s White-toothed Shrew might be adversely affected by pesticides used to kill locusts in regions where it is found. Bibliography. Aulagnier (2013b), Aulagnier & Thévenot (1986), Cassola (2016af), Hutterer (1986e), Vogel et al. (2000).

Published as part of Russell A. Mittermeier & Don E. Wilson, 2018, Soricidae, pp. 332-551 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 8 Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on page 501, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6870843