Feature Creature from the Philippine Mammal Collections Drawer: Philippine Tree Shrews

Do you want to know what’s inside the Philippine Mammal Collection drawers?

Here are study skins of Philippine Tree Shrews being sorted in the National Museum of Natural History. These study skin specimens are part of the zoological collection in the new compactor system facility of the NMNH. 

Below are two species of Philippine tree shrews — the Palawan tree shrew (Tupaia palawanensis) and the Mindanao tree shrew (Tupaia everetti). Philippine tree shrews are slender, squirrel-like animals with long furry tails, long pointed snout and large eyes. They live in tropical forests and are diurnal or active during daytime. They are omnivores feeding on insects, earthworms, fruits and sometimes small vertebrates. While the Palawan tree shrews are more abundant in lowland forests up to 1400 m, the Mindanao tree shrews are more common in montane forests from 1200 to 1800 m elevation.

Each of these specimens are being updated in the electronic catalog. Important data such as catalog number, locality, date collected, collector, field notes, and scientific name are updated and verified in the catalog. Some specimens’ names were changed after a series of reviews and studies. Such as the Urogale everetti, which is now placed under the genus Tupaia based on a molecular phylogeny in 2009. These kinds of changes are being modified in our electronic catalog for updating the specimen labels. However, old and original labels remain with the specimen forever. 

Text and photo layout by Zoology Division

Photo of Tupaia everetti by Danilo S. Balete, FMNH