Contribution à l’écologie et à la zoogéographie de Micropotamogale lamottei (Mammalia, Tenrecidae)

Abstract

Eighty eight specimens of the West African Pigmy Otter shrew Micropotamogale lamottei were collected in Western Ivory Coast between 1971 and 1976. Most of the animals had been drowned accidentally in native bow-nets ; four were live-trapped by the author. The Pigmy Otter shrew lives not only in swampy areas, as supposed by other authors, Jbut also in small rivers and forest streams. The species is well adapted to its aquatic environment ; it feeds mainly on fresh water crab and fish, swims well, is able to remain submerged for 10 to 15 minutes when alarmed, and grooms itself carefully and regularly. A survey carried out locally shows that the species is relatively common in the mountainous region surrounding Danané and Man, and further west in similar habitats of Liberia and Guinea. Its distribution in the Ivory Coast extends no more than 50 km around the Danané-Man core-area. It is thought that the living Potamogalinae stem from an early adaptive radiation of the Tenrecidae in continental Africa. Later on, the terrestrial forms were probably eliminated by competing Soricidae and Erinaceidae, their aquatic way of life enabling the Potamogalinae to survive until now.