Rationale

This is a widely distributed and common species within the assessment region, occurring in numerous protected areas (including Kruger National Park and presumably Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park). It has a broad habitat tolerance across its range, including agricultural landscapes (as long as they are not overgrazed) and gardens, and is one of the most common Crocidura species in suitable habitat. As it is largely commensal with humans, landscape transformation and modification is unlikely to have a negative effect. Thus, we list as Least Concern. Similarly to other shrew species, the following interventions will benefit this species: protected area expansion of moist grassland habitats, as well as incentivising landowners to sustain natural vegetation around wetlands and keep livestock or wildlife at ecological carrying capacity.

Regional population effects: No significant rescue effects are possible as, although habitats are presumably connected across regions in some areas, this species is too small to disperse over long distances.

Distribution

This is one of the most widespread shrew species in Africa, occurring throughout Central, East and southern Africa (Skinner and Chimimba 2005). Within the assessment region, they occur in all provinces except the Western and Eastern Cape, and only sparsely in Free State and Mpumalanga provinces, with the southern limit around Pennington in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Similarly, it occurs throughout the Middleveld, Lowveld and Lubombo regions, and marginally in the Highveld region at Mbabane, in Swaziland (Monadjem 1998). Although Barn Owl (Tyto alba) pellet analyses indicate a wide presence in the Northern Cape, with new records in areas such as Spitzkop Nature Reserve (Avery and Avery 2011), there is morphological and distributional overlap with C. cyanea and thus the mandibles retrieved from Barn Owl pellets could be confused between the two species (for example, Taylor and Contrafatto 1996). Whereas Meester (1963) has confirmed the Kalahari specimens, more vetting of museum specimens and Barn Owl pellets is needed to confirm its Karoo and West Coast distribution, particularly as the Goegap Nature Reserve record would mean a considerable range extension to the west (Avery and Avery 2011). It has been confirmed to occur widely in the bushveld and Kalahari regions of North West Province during a recent survey (Power 2014).

Habitat View more ecological information

Population trend

Trend

Threats

The main threat to shrews is the loss or degradation of moist, productive areas such as wetlands and rank grasslands within suitable habitat. The two main drivers behind this are abstraction of surface water and draining of wetlands through industrial and residential expansion, and overgrazing of moist grasslands, which leads to the loss of ground cover (de-structures habitat) and decreases small mammal diversity and abundance (Bowland and Perrin 1989, 1993; Monadjem 1999). Suppression of natural ecosystem processes, such as fire, can also lead to habitat degradation through bush encroachment or loss of plant diversity through alien invasives, and is suspected to be increasing with human settlement expansion. There are also clear overlaps and synergistic effects between these threats. Based on loss of natural habitat, we infer a continuing decline in some local populations, which may consequently lead to a progressive impact on the national population, should this habitat loss continue.

Uses and trade

There is no known subsistence or commercial use of this species.

Conservation

This species is found in several protected areas across its range, including Kruger National Park and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Although no interventions are currently necessary, protecting and restoring suitable habitat, such as moist grassland patches, will benefit this species. Biodiversity stewardship schemes should be promoted to conserve such patches. Importantly, at the local scale, landowners and managers should be educated, encouraged and incentivised to conserve the habitats on which shrews and small mammals depend. Retaining ground cover is the most important management tool to increase small mammal diversity and abundance. This can be achieved through lowering grazing pressure (Bowland and Perrin 1989), or by maintaining a buffer strip of natural vegetation around wetlands (Driver et al. 2012). Small mammal diversity and abundance is also higher in more complex or heterogeneous landscapes, where periodic burning is an important tool to achieve this (Bowland and Perrin 1993). Removing alien vegetation from watersheds, watercourses and wetlands is also an important intervention to improve flow and water quality, and thus habitat quality, for shrews. Education and awareness campaigns should be employed to teach landowners and local communities about the importance of conserving wetlands and moist grasslands.

Recommendations for land managers and practitioners:

• Landowners and communities should be incentivised to stock livestock or wildlife at ecological carrying capacity and to maintain a buffer of natural vegetation around wetlands.
• Enforce regulations on developments that potentially impact on the habitat integrity of grasslands and wetlands.

Research priorities:

• Additional field surveys are needed to clarify and confirm the distribution of this species.
• Museum records must be vetted to refine the distribution map.
• Molecular research is needed to revise the taxonomic status of putative subspecies.

Encouraged citizen actions:

• Citizens are requested to submit any shrews killed by cats or drowned in pools to a museum or a provincial conservation authority for identification, thereby enhancing our knowledge of shrew distribution (carcasses can be placed in a ziplock bag and frozen with the locality recorded).
• Practice indigenous gardening to sustain small mammals.