Another South African report, this time from Samuel Marlin.
Mokala, Marrick and Madikwe, 2018: Samuel Marlin, 10 days & 53 species including Pygmy Mouse, Black-footed Cat and Aardvark.
Jon
New Trip Report – South Africa
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Thank you Jon, Marrick has been on my must-visited list.
As for the sengi in Marrick, many reports id it to be Karoo Rock Sengi (Elephantulus pilicaudus ). However I find Marrick may be out of its distribution https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/165924/21291059. So are you sure it is the right species or sp. else?
Well spotted Zhou! This is not my report but I have also noticed that people are now identifying the Sengi there as Karoo Rock Sengi. I think this is because the guide at Marrick has been told that is the species there by some researchers. But I am not sure of what research or how certain the researchers are. I would like to know more – so if anyone knows for sure which species is there I would be interested to know.
After visiting Marrick last year and watching the Sengis in the south of the farm I spent a bit of time trying to put them down to a species. I thought it was well out of the current known range for Karoo Rock and most likely fitted Eastern Rock. Maybe Marrick is on the overlap between Eastern and Western? I did find an interesting paper when I was originally reading up but can’t seem to find it now. Not sure how accurate but HMW seems to also point to Eastern.Either way what a great mammal to watch and enjoy. Look forward to hear other options.
Yes, Jon is absolutely right. It is our guide who told us what we observed was a Karoo Rock Sengi. So I simply trusted him and reported what he said.
I did not catch one for a blood sample for a DNA analysis to check if this was actually a Western or Eastern rock Sengi, lol !
The guides are the wonderful Johnnie and his dad! Johnnie is really one of the best guide I ever had: very passionate, never tired and extremely sharp-eyed.