Shrews (Soricidae) of the lowland forests around Kisangani (DR Congo)

By

Van De Perre, Frederik
Leirs, Herwig
Cigar, Julien
Gambalemoke Mbalitini, Sylvestre
Mukinzi Itoka, Jean-Claude
Verheyen, Erik

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019-12-20

Original Publication

Biodiversity data journal

Volume

7

Pages

1--15

Subjects

Democratic Republic Congo , pitfall , removal trapping , Soricidae , tropical lowland forest

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers [2013]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e46948
eLocator: e46948

 

Abstract

The Congo Basin rainforest is the second largest rainforest in the world and one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. Nevertheless, the Congo Basin biodiversity remains to be fully mapped, with many species awaiting discovery or official description. In recent years, much effort has been put into research on shrews (Soricidae), particularly in the region around Kisangani (D.R. Congo). Shrews are opportunistic feeders that are able to forage on a large diversity of invertebrate prey and therefore play an important role in the forest ecosystem. Furthermore, as they largely depend on forest habitats and have limited dispersal capacities, shrews form an interesting model group to study biogeographic patterns in the Congo Basin.<br> This paper collates the efforts on shrew research from the wider region around Kisangani, in the centre of the Congo Basin. Apart from sampling information, the dataset includes morphological measures, DNA sequences and photographs. This dataset is therefore critical in the study of the taxonomy and ecology of Soricidae in the Congo Basin lowland rainforests.