This small to medium-sized shrew has dark brown fur. In the mountains of Costa Rica and Panama it has been recorded in cloud forest, forest fragments, and pasture.
It is small to medium-sized within its genus, with dark blackish-brown fur and little contrast between the back and underside. The tail averages about 42% of head-and-body length.
The Blackish Small-eared Shrew is a small, dark brown mammal of the Costa Rican and Panamanian highlands. It lives in cloud forest, forest fragments and pasture.
A 1993 paper described fieldwork at Monteverde, Costa Rica, in 1989. Researchers set several kinds of traps baited with a mixture of suet, seeds, raisins and vanilla for more than 1,570 trap-nights. None of the Blackish Small-eared Shrews they obtained was caught in these baited traps.
Pitfalls with low guiding fences, operated for more than 500 trap-nights, yielded eight shrews. Entomologists’ pitfalls supplied five more. The twenty-four specimens assembled also included three brought in by cats and eight found dead on paths or roads by residents before the researchers arrived. Scientific equipment and local discoveries together revealed these small inhabitants.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2023 species account identifies forest clearance for agriculture and climate change as threats to this shrew’s habitat. The 1989 Monteverde fieldwork also documented specimens brought in by domestic cats. Maintaining mountain habitat and investigating pressures on small mammals in and around forests are relevant to conservation.