The Elephant Shrew Lost for 50 Years
A tiny animal with a long, trunk-like nose was known only from a few museum specimens and hadn't been recorded since 1968. In 2020, it turned up in Djibouti.
What was reported
The Somali sengi is a small, mouse-sized mammal with a long, wriggling nose, related not to shrews but more closely to elephants and aardvarks. Science knew it only from about 39 specimens collected in Somalia, and the last record was from 1968.
In 2019, a team set traps baited with peanut butter, oats and yeast in the rocky desert of Djibouti, after hearing from local people that they knew the animal. They caught one on the first day.
Explanations offered
The sengi had never been studied in Djibouti, a country next to Somalia; it had simply been overlooked. It turned out to be widespread and not endangered, a reminder that 'lost' species may only be unlooked-for.
- When
- Lost in 1968; found in 2020
- Where
- Djibouti
- Witnesses
- Scientists and Djiboutian partners
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
More from Djibouti