A “giant” elephant shrew that looks like someone crossed a tiny antelope with a walking paint job and then added a small trunk. It lives only in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, making it a true local specialty. It’s big for a sengi, roughly 25% heavier than other elephant shrews. Its coloring is striking: a cool grey face with a long, flexible nose, rich reddish-brown or amber back with a maroon stripe, and jet-black rump, thighs, feet, ears, and tail. From the side it’s all contrast—grey front, red middle, black back—so it almost looks like it’s been color-blocked on purpose. Long, slim legs and big, dark eyes complete the look, turning it into a very fancy, long-snouted “mini antelope” of the forest floor.

The grey-faced sengi is a forest specialist. It lives in cool, moist montane and submontane forest with thick leaf litter, fallen logs, and dense undergrowth, sometimes including bamboo patches. Instead of digging burrows, it builds shallow, cup-shaped nests in the leaf litter at the base of trees, then roofs them over with loose leaves so they look like ordinary forest floor humps.

By day, it lies hidden in these nests; at dawn and dusk, it comes out to race along a network of narrow runways it keeps clear through the leaves. Along these paths, it uses its flexible “trunk” to probe and sniff for termites, ants, beetles, worms, and other small invertebrates, snapping them up with quick tongue flicks. It’s mostly diurnal or crepuscular, with bursts of high-speed foraging mixed with long pauses to listen and watch for danger.

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

Tanzania

15,000-24,000

VU

2013