Caitlin Yabut
Did you know that there’s a creature that’s small, fluffy and adorable like a hamster
Almost immediately after their ‘disappearance’, GWC placed them on their “25 Most Wanted Lost Species” list. Before their disappearance, only 39 individual sengi had been known to science centuries ago. Now those 39 sengi are stored at museums. And because there was little to no information collected about them in the past, most people didn’t know that such an extraordinary creature existed. In fact, they were among the world’s least known species! For half a century, the sengi species was considered one of African mammalogy’s biggest mysteries.
Global Wildlife Conservation have rediscovered Elephant shrews after decades of obscurity
Originally, Somali Sengi or Somali Elephant shrews could only be found in Somalia, hence the name. Then in 2019, GWC learned that the elusive creature was spotted in Djibouti. GWC immediately put together a team of scientists to find the sengi. Aside from Steven Heritage, the team also had legendary sengi researcher, the late Galen Rathbun from the California Academy of Sciences. Houssein Rayaleh, a research ecologist and conservationist from Association Djibouti Nature, who had seen the mammal before also joined the team. They started their search by interviewing and showing pictures of the sengi to local Djiboutians. Following this, they also conducted a scat analysis to figure out what the creatures ate.
They set 1, 259 traps to catch the elusive shrews
Somali sengi are monogamous mammals
The Somali sengi are no longer a ‘lost species’
Here’s a quick summary of information about the fascinating fluff
Watch them dance in the morning sun
Here’s what some people on Facebook had to say about this rediscovery