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1000
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Abstract/Summary
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The Albertine Rift has recently been declared by Plumptre et al. (2007a) as one of Africa’s biodiversity hotspots due to the high number of species and high levels of endemism. Here we report on a recent but brief survey of mammals from the Misotshi-Kabogo highlands of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This represents the first effort to document the mammal community of the region. Remarkably, the collection includes at least three species of mammals new to science: two species of shrews (Soricidae) described here and one species of horse-shoe bat (Rhinolophidae, Kerbis Peterhans et al. 2013). A total of five mammal taxa are now known exclusively from this forest. One of the shrews (Myosorex n. sp.) which we describe here continues to fill in distributional gaps of this typically montane-restricted genus. Several of the large mammal taxa provide significant range records, especially as southern terminals for species’ distribution. Together the data recorded here demonstrate the need for conserving this isolated and heretofore unrecognized reservoir of biodiversity.
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