This shrew is known from the Sierra de Perijá, which straddles Colombia and Venezuela. The paper gives one clear cloud-forest collection record; habitat information from other sites is limited.
Its dorsal fur is dark gray with a lead-gray sheen, and its tail is about half the head-and-body length.
Cryptotis perijensis inhabits the Sierra de Perijá across Colombia and Venezuela. Its fourth small upper tooth is displaced inward and difficult to see in side view, one of the features distinguishing it from close relatives.
The 2015 description directly examined two specimens: a skull from an animal found on the Colombian side in 1989, and an adult male collected on the Venezuelan side in 2009, preserved with a partly crushed skull. Material from different years and countries enabled comparisons of shrews from the same mountain range.
Comparisons of the teeth, skull and jaw with close relatives revealed a distinctive combination of features in animals previously assigned other species names. Linking the two specimens gave the mountain shrew its own name, perijensis, referring to the Sierra de Perijá.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The 2015 description could directly compare only two specimens; another previously reported individual could not be located in the intended collection. The authors hoped recognition of this endemic species would encourage research and conservation interest in the mountain range. Checking preserved material and collecting localities and surveying current habitat would help establish conservation priorities.