🐙 Cell & Organismal Biology
Incan Shrew Opossum
The Incan shrew opossum (Lestoros inca) is a rare shrew opossum of the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia. It is so seldom seen that it is known mostly from museum specimens.
The Incan shrew opossum (Lestoros inca) is a rare shrew opossum of the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia. It is so seldom seen that it is known mostly from museum specimens.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Incan Shrew Opossum in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Mammals lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
A Mystery of the Andes
Few live animals have been observed. It is thought to forage in leaf litter and moss for insects at high elevations in cloud forest and shrubland.
A Stand-In Illustration
The Field Guide has no licensed photograph of this species, so its plate is a clearly labeled illustration rather than a photograph.
Cousins
The Incan shrew opossum shares the Andes with the silky and gray-bellied shrew opossums. See Gray-bellied Shrew Opossum.
Incan Shrew Opossum at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Lestoros inca |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Mammalia |
| Order | Paucituberculata |
| Family | Caenolestidae |
| Field Guide group | Mammals: Marsupialia (Metatherians) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Small brown cloud-forest marsupial of the Peruvian Andes with a pointed snout, a long tail, and long forward-pointing lower incisors. |
| IUCN Red List status | Least Concern (LC), assessed 2016 |
| Order | Paucituberculata |
| Range | Peruvian and Bolivian Andes |
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