Species Fact Profile: Black-and-Rufous Sengi (Rhynchocyon petersi)

                                               Black-and-Rufous Sengi (Elephant Shrew)

                                                       Rhynchocyon petersi (Bocage, 1880)

Range: Eastern Africa (primarily Tanzania's Udzungwa Mountains in the Eastern Arc), Zanzibar

Habitat:  Lowland Forest, Dense Woodlands.  Up to 2,300 meters elevation

Diet: Insects, Earthworms, Fruits, Seeds

Social Grouping:  Pairs share a territory, but generally only interact during breeding

Reproduction: Monogamous, but with a weak pair bond, coming together briefly to mate.  1-2 offspring born per litter (very rarely 3-4) after a 42 day gestation period.  Young are less precocial than other sengis, but still leave the nest at about 2 weeks, weaned at 15 days.  Young in the nest are largely left along by the mother, who visits as rarely as once daily to feed them (the father provides no paternal care).  Females can have multiple litters per year.

Lifespan: 11 Years (4-5 Years in Wild)

      Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern

• Adults 30 centimeters long with an additional 25 centimeters of tail.  Hindlimbs are much longer than forelimbs.  Defining physical trait is a long proboscis (resembling the trunk of an elephant), which is used to probe for food
• Front half of the body is covered with reddish-golden fur, the back half with black fur
• Territorial, use scent glands on the feet to mark their territories (fairly large for their size).  Each animals maintains up to 10 nests across the territory at a given time
• Forage by flicking through leaf litter using their snout to uncover invertebrates, lapping up small animals with their tongues.  Ants and termites make up a large portion of the diet, but they will eat animal prey small enough to get into their mouths, as well as some plant matter
• Birds such as red-capped robin chats have been observed to follow the sengis as they forage, catching insects stirred up by their hunting
• Predators include snakes and birds of prey.  When pursued, take refuge in burrows or hollow logs.  Also hunted by local peoples for food
• The genus name Rhynchocyon translates to "snouted dog"
• This species and its close relatives have historically been referred to as the elephant shrews; now more often being called by the name sengi, the Bantu name for these animals, as they are not especially closely related to actual shrews (and are actually closer to elephants than shrews)
• Range is fragmented due to habitat loss for timbering and agricultural expansion (though the species has some tolerance for living in farmland).  Hunting does not appear to be a significant threat