The forest of this region grows on sandy soil and in a semi-arid climate with annual precipitation as low as 350 mm.

The canopy, which rarely exceeds twelve meters in height, is less tall than that of the inland forests and of those further north.

[3] The Mikea forest is threatened by both intentional burning for expansion of agricultural lands and unintentional wildfires[3] as well as deforestation for commodity lumber.

[3] All are endemic to Madagascar and the high demand for them in the construction industry directly threatens the ecology of the Mikea forest.

The main threat to Jenkins's shrew tenrec's is habitat loss from wildfires and intentional burning[3] and thus steps must be taken to ensure that the Mikea Forest is not completely lost.

[4] Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund are concerned with the conservation of the habitat of Jenkins' shrew tenrec because it is also home to a plethora of other species.

[9] Tenrecs are often referred to as insectivorous, but a more appropriate term is faunivorous, meaning they eat a diverse variety of animals (and not just insects).

How they partition prey within such an apparently crowded community of small-bodied faunivores remains unknown and has proven to be a challenging question to answer.