New Elephant-Shrew Species Discovered
22 February 2008
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It was the size of a small dog, covered in orange and gray fur, and had a long snout like an elephant. Its markings and general appearance suggested it was a member of the elephant-shrew family, called a sengi in Swahili. Today, the Journal of Zoology reports that Rovero discovered a new species of giant elephant-shrew.
Rovero of Italy’s Trento Museum of Natural Sciences was documenting elusive forest animals deep in the Ndunlulu Forest of Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains. The Udzungwas are part of a series of ancient and isolated mountains stretching from southern Kenya to south-central Tanzania. Rovero’s cameras captured lions and antelope, as he expected, but this was something different.
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The new species, named the gray-faced sengi (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis), weighs about 1.5 pounds, 25 percent larger than any other member of the elephant-shrew family. It is known to exist in only two groups in a 115-square-mile area of this largely unexplored forest.
Scientists report that its relatives include elephants, manatees, and the aardvark. In recent years, a number of other new species have been discovered here, including the Udzungwa partridge, a monkey known as the kipunji, and several amphibians and reptiles.
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