Genetic identity of the critically endangered W immer's shrew C rocidura wimmeri

Coastal primary rainforests have suffered damage in C ôte d' I voire as a result of a lack of protection and urban pressures. Consequently, the highly endemic and critically endangered W immer's shrew, C rocidura wimmeri , known only from its type locality, A diopodoumé, near A bidjan, was considered to have been extinct since 1976. Shrew species assignment is often problematic because of strong phenotypic similarities among many species. The phylogenetic position of C . wimmeri within the A frican C rocidura species should thus be clarified. In light of its recent rediscovery in the nearby small B anco N ational P ark (34 km 2 ), we investigated the genetic identity of seven specimens of C . wimmeri , based on 1020 bp of the mitochondrial DNA   cytochrome b gene compared to other species sampled in the same region and published sequences from G en B ank. C rocidura wimmeri formed a well‐defined clade, the closest‐related species being C rocidura sp., with a distance of 9.3%, a yet unknown species from T aï and Z iama forests. These results thus confirmed the validity of this species. This genetic characterization not only contributes to our knowledge of the evolution of W est A frican shrews, but also may help in the discovery of additional populations of this critically endangered species. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2014, 111 , 224–229.