CreatureData

Black shrew

Suncus ater Medway, 1965

DDData Deficientmammals

The black shrew (Suncus ater) is a species in the family Soricidae, order Eulipotyphla. Recorded adults weigh about 11.1 g. Its IUCN Red List status is Data Deficient.

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Quick facts about the black shrew

Weight
11.1 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Data Deficient (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the black shrew live?

Not recorded

What is the black shrew?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The black shrew (Suncus ater) is a white-toothed shrew only known from Mount Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.

It is known from a single specimen (holotype) which was collected in montane forest at 1,600 meters elevation.

From the Wikipedia article “Black shrew” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_shrew&oldid=1314380746), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the black shrew endangered?

The black shrew is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List: it has too little data for its risk to be assessed.

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Data Deficient species.

How is the black shrew classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderEulipotyphla
  5. familySoricidae
  6. genusSuncus
  7. SpeciesSuncus ater Medway, 1965

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the black shrew

Other species in the same genus Suncus.

EN, Endangered

Day's shrew

Suncus dayi

SoricidaeNo free photo yet

EN, Endangered

Flores shrew

Suncus mertensi

SoricidaeNo free photo yet

CompareBlack shrew vs Etruscan shrewBlack shrew vs Asian house shrewBlack shrew vs Anderson's shrewBlack shrew vs Day's shrew

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the black shrew?

An adult black shrew weighs 11.1 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the black shrew endangered?

The black shrew is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List, meaning it has too little data for its risk to be assessed.

What kind of animal is the black shrew?

The black shrew (Suncus ater) belongs to the family Soricidae in the order Eulipotyphla.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

  • Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
    Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
  • EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
    Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
  • Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
    Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
  • Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
    Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Black shrew (Suncus ater). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-shrew

MLA

“Black shrew (Suncus ater).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-shrew.

BibTeX
@misc{black_shrew_2026,
  title = {Black shrew (Suncus ater)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-shrew},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}