On one of the safari drives in BRT Wildlife Sanctuary, I came across a small rat-like mammal. Though I knew it was the Madras Tree Shrew, I wasn’t really sure since it had rarely been recorded in this area. The ID was later confirmed by experts.
The Madras Tree Shrew (Anathana ellioti), also referred to as the Indian Tree Shrew, is a small mammal belonging to the order Scandentia, and is endemic to peninsular India. It is distributed “both in the dry and moist deciduous forests of peninsular India, south of the Ganges” (Prater 1971), to Bihar in the east, and the Satpuras in the west, up to an altitude of 1400m ASL (Menon 2003).
Over the past few years, several observers have sighted this species from the BRT Wildlife Sanctuary in Chamarajanagar district, southern Karnataka. Click here to read more about these sightings.
CI is a non-profit, non-commercial portal that aims to facilitate wildlife and nature conservation by providing reliable information and the tools needed to campaign effectively.
Chosen as 'Picture of the Week'
The Madras Tree Shrew (Anathana ellioti), also referred to as the Indian Tree Shrew, is a small mammal belonging to the order Scandentia, and is endemic to peninsular India.