SANBI

Rationale (Changed due to Same category and criteria)

The Cape Rock Sengi is listed as Least Concern. Although this species is not abundant, it is widespread in suitable habitats over an area greater than 130,000 km². Because it occupies rocky habitats that are arid and will not support most development, there are no known threats to the large area occupied by the Cape Rock Sengi. Areas close to rivers or reliable sources of water may have been developed, or may be developed in the future, as urban areas. For example, alluvial areas along rivers in the Cedarberg Mountains of South Africa have been developed for agriculture, but these habitats are not usually occupied by Cape Rock Sengis, and these areas are relatively small compared to the overall distribution of this species. Small areas also may be impacted by intensive goat and sheep grazing as well as mineral extraction activities, but these types of disturbances are confined to small areas compared to the overall distribution of the species. Past, current and future development in this region of Africa is not expected to have a significant impact on this sengi or its habitats.

Distribution

The Cape Sengi is endemic to South Africa (Corbet and Hanks 1968, Skinner and Chimimba 2005). Although many older distribution maps show it as having two disjunct areas of occurrence, recent data indicate that it is continuously distributed (Stuart and Stuart 1991, Friedman and Daly 2004). It has not been recorded in Namibia, and is not suspected to occur north of the Orange River.

Habitat View more ecological information

Population trend

Trend

The species is not considered abundant, but it is widespread in suitable habitats and locally common. Current population trends are not known, but there is no reason to believe that E. edwardii numbers are increasing or decreasing significantly due to any factors other than natural variation in environmental conditions in the rocky and arid environments where they occur.

Threats

There are no known major threats to the species. Habitat modification to relatively small areas may occur near rivers and human population centres due to small-holder and industrial agriculture, mineral extraction, and urban development, however, these are not considered major threats to the current population.

Conservation

The species occurs in protected areas, but no details have been documented or assembled. Because of the very minor conservation problems facing this taxon, no conservation measures are needed or recommended at present or in the foreseeable future.

References

[@electronic{1087,
 address = {www.iucnredlist.org},
 author = {IUCN},
 title = {The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.2},
 year = {2015}
}
,@inbook{7136,
 address = {Cambridge, UK},
 author = {},
 booktitle = {Macroscelidea},
 editor = {Rathbun, G.B. (subeditor)},
 pages = {22--34},
 publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
 title = {The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion, 3rd edition},
 year = {2005}
}
,@article{7136,
 author = {Corbet, G.B. and Hanks, J.},
 journal = {Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Zoology)},
 pages = {1--111},
 title = {A revision of the elephant-shrews, family Macroscelididae},
 volume = {16},
 year = {1968}
}
,@article{7136,
 author = {Smit, H.A., Robinson, T.J. and Jansen van Vuuren, B. },
 journal = {Molecular Ecology},
 pages = {2680--2692},
 title = {Coalescence methods reveal the impact of vicariance on the spatial genetic structure of the Cape rock elephant-shrew (Afrotheria, Macroscelidea)},
 volume = {16},
 year = {2007}
}
,@article{7136,
 author = {Smit, H.A., Robinson, T.J. and Jansen van Vuuren, B.},
 journal = { Afrotherian Conservation, Newsletter of the IUCN-SSC Afrotheria Specialist Group},
 pages = {5--7},
 title = {Vicariance and the endemic Cape rock sengi (<i>Elephantulus edwardii</i>): are these two linked?},
 volume = {5},
 year = {2007}
}
,]

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