Somali Elephant Shrew which is also known as Somali Sengi was found after 50 Years of disappearance. The creature has vanished from the Planet Earth 50 yrs ago.
Somali Sengi is a tiny animal with an elephant trunk-like nose was found accidentally by the researchers in the rocky landscape of Horn of Africa.
This insect-eating creature was feared to be extinct as it was last found during the 1970s. After that, the creature disappeared and was in the list of “25 most wanted lost species“ issued by the Global Wildlife Conservation Group.
Somali Sengi specimens were preserved in the World’s Natural History Museum. Around 29 specimens were preserved thinking that the species might got extinct. After rediscovering this mammal, Robin Moore of Global Wildlife Conservation said
Usually when we rediscover lost species, we find just one or two individuals and have to act quickly to try to prevent their imminent extinction,
But luckily, last year scientists found these animals roaming in the wild. The research also comes to the conclusion that these creatures were not confined to Somalia. Now, the researchers have started looking for Sengi’s and their different kinds in Djibouti which is a small town in Horn of Africa nation that borders Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.
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Somali Elephant Shrew is neither an elephant nor a shrew. But it has a distant relation to aardvarks, elephants and manatees. The size of this is equal to that of a mouse. It has powerful legs that allow it to run at speeds of nearly 30 km/hr (20 miles/hour).
The conservationists have formed teams and are discussing with the locals and gathering information related to these creatures. A few of them were caught by arranging traps. The researchers collected 12 specimens of the mammal. The team also included global elephant shrew expert Galen Rathburn.
This has raised the hope for those species still thought to be “lost”. They include:
- Ilin Island cloudrunner.
- A cloud rat (Found in a single island in the Philippines).
However, the size of the population of these creatures could not be determined. One more adding aspect of these creatures survival is that there is no threat by the environment, human development and agriculture as other rats have.
As a result, the researchers recommended the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to reappraise Somali sengi’s classification from “Data Deficient” to “Least Concern” in the list of vulnerable creatures.
Other species which were rediscovered in recent years include:
- Jackson’s climbing salamander (in Guatemala),
- Wallace’s giant bee (in Indonesia),
- Silver-backed chevrotain – A deer-like species in the size of a rabbit (in Vietnam).