Historical Review and Notes on Small Mammals (Mammalia: Erinaceomorpha, Soricomorpha, Rodentia) in Korea

Abstract

A taxonomic study of small mammals (Erinaceomorpha, Soricomorpha and Rodentia) was conducted in order to find out the scientific names which have been used in Korea. The synonymy of each species and taxonomical research was reviewed and confirmed in this study. The species names are rearranged based on recent studies. Among the various confused names, available names were adopted such as follows: C. shantungensis shantungensis known as Crocidura suaveolens; C. shantungensis quelpartis known as C. dsinezumi; Rattus tanezumi known as R. rattus, called black rat, roof rat and ship rat, respectively. Apodemus sylvaticus (Muridae, wood mouse) is excluded in the checklist based on indistinct previous records and ambiguous habitation on the Korean Peninsula, and neighbors. In addition, we provide a new Korean vernacular name for Myocastor coypus, called the "Nutria" in Korea. We reflect that several species are repositioned to other genera. A checklist of Korean small mammals and synonym list for each species is provided to avoid confusion of scientific names in Korea. In this study, the list of small mammals in Korea is arranged to 33 species, 20 genera, 8 families, and 3 orders