Assessor: Matthew Child
Many anecdotal reports from landowners across the country suggest a decline of some sort over the past 10–20 years due to predation by domestic pets, fire frequency, pesticide usage, electrocution on game fences, and ongoing illegal harvesting for the pet trade and traditional medicine trade (Light et al. 2016). For example, there has been an 8% decrease in reported questionnaire-based sightings frequency in a section of the North West Province since the 1980s (Light et al. 2016).
This species is a delicacy (food source) in some African cultures and is harvested locally (Skinner & Chimimba 2005). This species is also locally and commercially sold as pets, although many tenrecs are sold masquerading as South African Hedgehogs. Their spines and bones are also sold locally and are commonly seen in muti markets; for example, at Faraday Market in Johannesburg (Whiting et al. 2011), and in Xhosa-speaking regions (Simelane & Kerley 1998). Similarly, in the Basotho-speaking areas of the eastern Free State and Lesotho, questionnaires indicate that traditional healers use them when they can find them (N.L. Avenant unpubl. data). Their spines are also often sold ornamentally in curio shops across the country. The effects of these uses are unknown but, when coupled with habitat loss, will likely result in declines in local population numbers (Light et al. 2016).
Light J, Pillay N, Avenant NL, Child MF 2016. A conservation assessment of Atelerix frontalis. In Child MF, Roxburgh L, Do Linh San E, Raimondo D, Davies-Mostert HT, editors. The Red List of Mammals of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho. South African National Biodiversity Institute and Endangered Wildlife Trust, South Africa.
Simelane TS, Kerley GIH. 1998. Conservation implications of the use of vertebrates by Xhosa traditional healers in South Africa. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 28(4):121–126.
https://journals.co.za/content/wild/28/4/EJC117057
Skinner JD, Chimimba CT. 2005. The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion. Third edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Whiting, M.J., Williams, V.L. and Hibbitts, T.J. 2011. Animals Traded for Traditional Medicine at the Faraday Market in South Africa: Species Diversity and Conservation Implications.” Journal of Zoology 284: 84–96.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-29026-8_19
Population size is unknown, but given its wide extent of occurrence (748,169 km2) and because it can be common in suitable habitat (Light et al. 2016), population size is suspected to be >2,500 mature individuals.
Light J, Pillay N, Avenant NL, Child MF 2016. A conservation assessment of Atelerix frontalis. In Child MF, Roxburgh L, Do Linh San E, Raimondo D, Davies-Mostert HT, editors. The Red List of Mammals of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho. South African National Biodiversity Institute and Endangered Wildlife Trust, South Africa.
Whole animals are killed for bushmeat or traditional medicine or captured and removed from the wild for the pet trade.
While this is a small species with suspected high growth rates, no studies on its density or reproductive potential have been performed in the assessment region (Light et al. 2016). Thus regeneration potential is unkwown.
Light J, Pillay N, Avenant NL, Child MF 2016. A conservation assessment of Atelerix frontalis. In Child MF, Roxburgh L, Do Linh San E, Raimondo D, Davies-Mostert HT, editors. The Red List of Mammals of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho. South African National Biodiversity Institute and Endangered Wildlife Trust, South Africa.