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Taming of the Shrew

Category: Coastal Forest, Elephant Shrew, Shimoni Forest, Shrews, Small mammals | Date: Nov 17 2009 | By: gvikenya

For about a year now we’ve been experimenting with a method of trapping the elusive and shy Zanj elephant shrew. This particular shrew is technically a sengi, and is a species that is not only endemic to the east African coast, but is also listed as ‘rare’ and ‘data deficient’ by the IUCN.

Shimoni forest boasts a significant population of this small mammal, and sightings of it by our forest teams are fairly regular (especially at this time of year when visibility is good). So we did some research and decided to procure ourselves a 50m long, very finely threaded fishing net with which to catch them with!

One of the cleared patches that mark the habitual pathway

We set the net up in a large semi circle, and either ‘beat the bush’ towards the net hoping to drive a shrew into it, or we sit nice and quietly and wait for one to wander in. This method works because the Zanj elephant shrew uses habitual pathways, which it will travel along each day clearing them of obstacles. So if one was to encounter the net, it would most likely attempt to get through or over the net, causing it to get entangled. Once caught we would take its measurements, weight, and then clip a small patch of fur on a designated spot on its body for mark-recapture purposes.

Some zanj elephant shrew droppings that are found around the paths

Unfortunately we haven’t caught one yet, but I do not doubt the method itself. Due to the amount of time needed to complete all of our regular surveys, we only get a chance to do this survey perhaps once or twice every three months. This is obviously not even remotely enough to stand a chance of catching a shrew. Especially because until recently we did not know what their trails looked like and therefore could not strategically place our net.

But a couple of weeks ago we saw one of the little chaps running away from us, and so we had a closer look at the exact route it took through the undergrowth. To our surprise, the path was quite obviously marked. Approximately every 30cm, there is a cleared area of dirt. A patch where all the leaf litter and twigs and other debris is cleared, leaving a bare area of dirt approximately 10cm long. And these cleared patches headed off into the undergrowth!

Several of the patches leading off into the undergrowth

Now we know what to look for, we have been spotting the shrew trails all over the forest! This has given us motivation to get back into shrew netting, and allowed us to strategically place our net across these trails, greatly increasing our chance of catching one!

We’ll keep you posted!

Tags: , beat the bush, data deficient, debris, droppings, East African Coast, elusive, endemic, entangled, fishing net, good visibility, habitual pathways, IUCN, leaf litter, mark-recapture, measurments, method of trapping, obstacles, rare, regular surveys, research, sengi, Shimoni Forest, shrew netting, shy, significant population, small mammal, strategically, trails, twigs, undergrowth, weight, zanj elephant shrew

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Dead Baby Genet Found In Shimoni Forest

Category: Shimoni Forest, genets | Date: Nov 05 2009 | By: gvikenya

Yesterday our forest team went out in the late afternoon to see if we could get some colobus behaviour done, as we are lacking data for that time of the day. We didn’t manage to get a sighting good enough, but on our way back we got a sighting we certainly did not expect – a dead baby genet!

It was lying directly on our north/south spine, so there was no way we could have missed it. Having only ever seen one genet in the forest before (during a night walk), I was truly excited, albeit rather sad. I immediately guessed it was a young one purely based on its size, and it had a relatively large hole in its upper body.

This photo shows the broad-based, rounded ears

It was getting late and the light was fading, so we covered it in a temporary tomb of coral blocks, to protect it from scavengers until the next day when we could come back and inspect it in more detail. So this morning we went back to the same spot, armed with a camera, a measuring tape and a spring balance.

The genet being weighed using a spring balance

Its measurements were as follows:

• Head-body (from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail): 24 cm
• Foreleg: 6 cm
• Hind leg: 10 cm
• Tail: 20 cm
• Weight: 175 g

From the photographs we got, it is clear that it is either a common genet (Genetta genetta) or a blotched genet (Genetta tigrina). Personally I’m leaning towards the blotched genet, for the following reasons;

Common genets have rather coarse fur whereas bloched genets have much softer fur. I touched the fur, and it was definitely soft!
Common genets have a short crest of longer fur along the spine, and the blotched genet does not. We did not see a spine of longer fur on our genet.
The common genet has small, numerous and linear spots on a sandy background. Although our genet did have small numerous spots, they do not appear as tidy or linear as the picture in the book suggests (Kingdon, 1997).
The blotched genet has broad-based, slightly rounded ears in comparison with the more pointed ears of the common genet.
The common genet has a small patch of pale or white fur at the tip of the tail, when the blotched genet does not. Ours appeared to have a black tip of the tail.
Furthermore, the coat of the blotched genet can be extremely variable with regards to colour and pattern, and different coloured morphs exist in the same area. This had led to the naming of many subspecies.

This shows the extent of the wound

All of this said, I think it is very difficult to say for sure, purely because of the age of the animal. It is obviously very young, as its body and tail length are approximately half the minimum length of an adult of both the common and blotched genets, and its weight is approximately one seventh of the minimum weight of an adult of either species. So many of the key features for successful identification may have not have developed yet.

Anyway, it was incredibly interesting to see one of these shy, nocturnal animals so close. They are truly beautiful little creatures, that are found in the Viverridae family that includes all genets and civets.