You may be wondering: what is it? It’s not a hybrid animal or a failed science experiment. It is an animal that was believed to have been extinct for 50 years, no less. They are a distant relative of anteaters, elephants, and manatees. But it’s much smaller, almost like a mouse. The reappearance of the shrew was a great surprise to everyone.
Fast and elusive
It is also known as the Somali sengi. His powerful legs allow him to run at a speed of almost 30 kilometers per hour. Nobody had seen him in half a century. Where did he go The dissected specimens could only be seen in natural history museums. Apparently this little mammal was still out and about on Earth. More importantly, their habitat was not limited to Somalia.
A Sengi investigation in Djibouti, the small coastal nation that borders Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. The team installed more than 1,250 traps. He filled them with peanut butter, oatmeal, and yeast extract. “Our interviews with nomads and local shepherds showed that they saw Sengo regularly. They always told us the same common name (Wali Sandheer) ». Houseins Rayaleh of the Djibouti Nature Association remembers that. He had even seen Sengis himself while he was working. But he couldn’t check if they were Somali Sengis that were extinct.
Surprise in the trap
The team also included the world elephant shrew expert Galen Rathburn. He studied the creatures for decades but had never seen one. “When he opened the first trap and looked, he said, ‘I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen one,” says Steven Heritage. It belongs to the Lemur Center at Duke University. Take part in the study that is in the journal “PeerJ” was published.
The researchers collected 12 specimens outside of Somalia’s borders. This small mammal has expanded its vital limits. The team believes it is specifically installed in Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
You cannot estimate the size of the population. But the re-emergence of the shrew brings good prospects. They believe Sengi will thrive. “All the locals knew about it, so it can’t be that strange. Their habitats are not threatened by agriculture or human development. They live in a very dry environment where agriculture has no foreseeable future, ”they report. They asked that the list of endangered creatures change the status: from “insufficient data” to “least concern”.
