Rufous elephant shrews are small mouse-like animals found on the plains, savannas and forest floors of east Africa. Their long mobile snouts can be moved around much like an elephant's trunk in their endless search for ants, termites and worms. These shrews are escape specialists: they make a series of pathways away from their nests which they shoot down rapidly at the first signs of a predator.

Peabody Museum

The elephant shrew which occurs only in Africa, is, according to the scientists actually not related to the shrew, but to a group of African mammals, which include elephants, sea cow, aardvarks and hyraxes, having shared a common ancestor with them about 100 million years ago. This is why they are also known as sengis.

Pugu Hills