Elephant shrew

Elephant shrews, also called jumping shrews or sengis, are small <a href="/facts/Insectivore/ukA7UnLr">insectivorous</a> <a href="/facts/Mammal/phSwTzBo">mammals</a> native to <a href="/facts/Africa/XkqQUP9s">Africa</a>, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the <a href="/facts/Order_(biology)/GKLJvIpt">order</a> Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name "elephant shrew" comes from a perceived resemblance between their long noses and the trunk of an <a href="/facts/Elephant/6prrEFFK">elephant</a>, and their superficial similarity with <a href="/facts/Shrew/FqIA64gX">shrews</a> (family Soricidae) in the order <a href="/facts/Eulipotyphla/aRE1FC8P">Eulipotyphla</a>. However, <a href="/facts/Phylogenetics/bw4rsovt">phylogenetic</a> analysis has revealed that elephant shrews are not properly classified with true shrews, but are in fact more closely related to elephants than to shrews. In 1997, the biologist <a href="/facts/Jonathan_Kingdon/qmcm7P26">Jonathan Kingdon</a> proposed that they instead be called "sengis" (singular sengi), a term derived from the <a href="/facts/Bantu_languages/6xKvpQ1a">Bantu languages</a> of Africa, and in 1998, they were classified into the new clade <a href="/facts/Afrotheria/M2cTHlVs">Afrotheria</a>.

They are widely distributed across the southern part of Africa, and although common nowhere, can be found in almost any type of habitat, from the <a href="/facts/Namib_Desert/pVjUIn1F">Namib Desert</a> to boulder-strewn outcrops in South Africa to thick forest. One species, the <a href="/facts/North_African_elephant_shrew/cDUPVNAT">North African elephant shrew</a>, remains in the semi-arid, mountainous country in the far northwest of Africa. The <a href="/facts/Somali_elephant_shrew/34GL6Q18">Somali elephant shrew</a> went unobserved from 1968 to 2020 but was rediscovered by a group of scientists in <a href="/facts/Djibouti/77jY0eII">Djibouti</a>.

Elephant shrew open-in-new

Elephant shrew