A little-known mammal related to an elephant but as small as a mouse has been rediscovered in Africa after 50 years of obscurity.
The last scientific record of the "lost species" of elephant shrew was in the 1970s, despite local sightings.
The creature was found alive and well in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa, during a scientific expedition.
Elephant shrews, or sengis, are neither elephants nor shrews, but related to aardvarks, elephants and manatees.
They have distinctive trunk-like noses, which they use to feast on insects.
There are 20 species of sengis in the world, and the Somali sengi (Elephantulus revoilii) is one of the most mysterious, known to science only from 39 individuals collected decades ago and stored in museums. The species was previously known only from Somalia, hence its name.
Steven Heritage, a research scientist at the Duke University Lemur Center in Durham, US, and a member of the expedition to the Horn of Africa in 2019, said he was thrilled to put the species "back on the radar".
He told the BBC: "We were really excited and elated when we opened the first trap that had an elephant shrew in it, a Somali sengi.
"We did not know which species occurred in Djibouti and when we saw the diagnostic feature of a little tufted tail, we looked at each other and we knew that it was something special."
Image copyrightHOUSSEIN RAYALEH
Image caption
The creature lives in a dry, rocky habitat
The scientists had heard reports of sightings in Djibouti, and Houssein Rayaleh, a Djiboutian research ecologist and conservationist who joined the trip, believed he had seen the animal before.
He said while people living in Djibouti never considered the sengis to be "lost", the new research brings the Somali sengi back into the scientific community, which is valued.
"For Djibouti this 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," he said.
Peanut butter bait
The team set more than 1,000 traps at 12 locations, baiting the traps with a concoction of peanut butter, oatmeal and yeast. They caught one of the creatures in the first trap they set in the dry, rocky landscape of Djibouti.
In total, they saw 12 sengis during their expedition and obtained the first-ever photos and video of live Somali elephant shrews for scientific documentation.
They did not observe any immediate threats to the species' habitat, which is inaccessible and far from farming and human developments.
The abundance of the species seems similar to other elephant shrews and its range may extend beyond Somalia into Djibouti and possibly Ethiopia.
That's is ok