Elephant shrew: Rediscovered in Africa after 50 years

An Elephant shrew species which is related to an elephant but as small as a mouse has been rediscovered in Africa (Djibouti) after 50 years of obscurity.

Salient Features

The creature was found alive and well in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa, during a scientific expedition.

The Somali sengi (Elephantulus revoilii) is a small mammal related to the elephant .

The last scientific record of the “lost species” of this elephant shrew was in the 1968, despite local sightings.

Elephant shrews, or sengis, are neither elephants nor shrews, but related to aardvarks, elephants and manatees.

They have distinctive trunk-like noses, which they use to feast on insects.

Source: BBC

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