This is the first photo ever of a live Somali sengi for scientific documentation.
Steven Heritage / Duke University Lemur Center
The scientific community knew that Somali sengi elephant shrews once roamed parts of Africa. There were examples – some collected hundreds of years ago – in museum collections. It’s just that no scientist has reported one in the wild since the late 1960s.
Good news for elephants: The Somali sengi is alive and well in Djibouti, and there is ample evidence.
Conservation Group Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) announced the rediscovery of the “romantic monogamous” Somali sengi on Tuesday. The elephant shrew was on the list of the organization’s 25 Most Wanted Lost Species.
GWC published the first scientific documentation of a living Somali sengi in the form of a photograph showing the mouse-like animal standing on some rocks. The insect-eater has a body-like nose and is more closely related to elephants than actual shells.
This Somali sengi is back on the science books.
Houssein Rayaleh / Association Djibouti Nature
The investigation team caught an escaped Somali sengi in a trap containing eggs containing peanut butter, oatmeal and yeast.
“It was amazing,” said research scientist Steven Heritage of Duke University Lemur Center in a statement. “When we opened the first staircase and saw the small tuft of hair at the tip of the tail, we just looked at each other and we could not believe it,”
Association Djibouti Ecologist naturalist Houssein Rayaleh was aware that the Somali sengi was still there. “For those of us who live in Djibouti, and due to the Horn of Africa expansion, we have never considered the sengis ‘lost’,” he said in a Q&A with GWC. “But this new research brings the Somali sengi back into the scientific community, which we appreciate.”
Rayaleh is co-author of a paper on the sengis published Tuesday in PeerJ magazine. Heritage is the main author.
The Somali sengis appears to be safe in its habitat, a range that crosses from Somalia to Djibouti. The research team has recommended that small mammals be assigned the status of “least concern” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
“For Djibouti,” Rayaleh said, “it is an important story that highlights the great biodiversity of the country and the region and shows that there are opportunities for new science and research here.”
