Scientists catch new elephant shrew, then kill it

Scientists have discovered a new species of elephant shrew in Tanzania. The grey-faced sengi is so large, by elephant shrew standards, that it proved too big for the traps that Francesco Rovero, of the Trento Museum of Natural Sciences in Italy took to catch it.

After the weirdly cute animal was caught on film in 2005 by Rovero, he returned to Tanzania’s jungle with Galen Rathbun to catch one. After finding their traps too small they improvised with twine snares, eventually catching four of the animals.

“I got these images, and said to myself: ‘Boy, these look strange’. But you can’t describe something new based just on photographs, so in March 2006, we went back in and collected some specimens,” says Rathbun, of the California Academy of Sciences (BBC). The Times says Rathbun is known as ‘the elephant-shrew guy’ due to his long study of them.

The new beast is the first addition to the giant elephant-shrew family in over 100 years. “From the moment I first lifted one of the animals into our photography tent, I knew it must be a new species—not just because of its distinct colouring, but because it was so heavy,” says Rathbun (press release 1).

This is, says Rathbun, one of the most exciting discoveries of his career. Pity the four sengis though, they were skinned, dried and taken away to the Natural History Museum in London (press release 2). The CAS has thoughtfully provided a photo gallery of the poor critters being ‘prepared’ for their trip.