New Species Of Giant Elephant-shrew Discovered In Tanzania

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This video from the USA shows a giant elephant shrew; filmed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

From Wildlife Extra:

Scientists Discover New Species of Giant Elephant-Shrew in Tanzania

Related to sea cows and elephants, it lives in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania and is the largest elephant-shrew yet discovered.

January 2008. Although there is unquestionably much left to be discovered about life on Earth, charismatic animals like mammals are usually well documented, and it is rare to find a new species today, especially from a group as intriguing as the elephant-shrews.

Distant Cousins of the Elephant

Elephant shrews are monogamous mammals found only in Africa with a colourful history of misunderstood ancestry. Like shrews, these small, furry mammals eat mostly insects. Early scientists named them elephant-shrews not because they thought the animals were related to elephants but because of their long, flexible snouts. Ironically, recent molecular research has shown that they are actually more closely related to elephants than to shrews.

They evolved in Africa over 100 million years ago, and their relatives include elephants, sea cows and the aardvark. Until recently, only 15 species of elephant-shrews, also called sengis to avoid confusion with true shrews, were known to science. However, in March of 2006, California Academy of Sciences Research Associate Galen Rathbun and a team of collaborators confirmed the existence of a new species that lives only in two high-altitude forest blocks in the mountains of south-central Tanzania. Their discovery appeared in the January 25 issue of The Journal of Zoology.

First New Species of Elephant Shrew for 125+ Years

This is one of the most exciting discoveries of my career,’ said Rathbun, who has studied the ecology, social structure, and evolution of sengis for more than 30 years. ‘It is the first new species of giant elephant-shrew to be discovered in more than 126 years. From the moment I first lifted one of the animals into our photography tent, I knew it must be a new species, not just because of its distinct colouring, but because it was so heavy!’ The new species, which has been named the grey-faced sengi (Rhynochocyon udzungwensis), weighs about 700 grams (1.5 pounds), which is 25 percent larger than any other known sengi.

First Seen in 2005

The new sengi was first caught on film in 2005, when Francesco Rovero of the Trento Museum of Natural Sciences in Italy set up camera traps inside the remote Ndundulu Forest in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains, where he was surveying the region’s forest mammals. When the cameras recorded an elephant-shrew that looked unfamiliar, he sent the photos to Rathbun for identification, who determined that the colourful animal appeared to be a new species. In March of 2006, they embarked on a two-week expedition with a team of colleagues to search for specimens to confirm the discovery.