45. Güldenstädt’s White-toothed Shrew, Crocidura gueldenstaedtii (Pallas, 1811)

(IUCN Red List: LC)

Subspecies: C. g. monacha Thomas, 1906 .

Distribution: Abundant with a wide distribution from Mesopotamia, Aleppo, along the coastal region, Orontes Basin, towards southwestern region (Fig. 51).

Previous records: Al-Furunlok and Qastal Maaf (Lehmann 1965), Maquam Assayed, Qastal Maaf, Rabi’ah, Qal’at Al-Hosson, Homs, 25 km to the northwest of Aleppo, Jarablus, ar-Raqqa, Qanawat-Houran Mount, and Tell Al-Buderi (Hutterer & Kock 2002), Al-Mozirieb and Kharabow (Shehab 2005), and Yahmool (Shehab & Charabi 2006).

Recent record: Shamseen (2021).

Remarks: Until recently this species was classified as C. suaveolens (Bannikova et al., 2001) . There were significant changes in both the taxonomic status of the taxa and their distribution (see Hutterer 1993) supported by phylogenetic research on the Palaearctic White-toothed shrews ( suaveolens sp. group) (Bannikova et al. 2006).