The short-snouted elephant shrew or short-snouted sengi (''Elephantulus brachyrhynchus'') is a species of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. It is found over a wide area of Africa. Its natural habitats are dry savanna and subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland.

Conservation status and threats

The short-snouted elephant shrew is listed as of least concern by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

because it inhabits immense areas of southern Africa that are generally not inhabited by humans. While no specific threats to this species are apparent, possible future threats to the short-snouted elephant shrews include bush encroachment and

desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...

Location

This species is found from northern South Africa through northeast Namibia, east and central Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique north to the Democratic Republic of Congo. In

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, they are found in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Habitat

Short-snouted elephant shrews inhabit arid and semi-arid habitats. They prefer densely covered bush lands and scrub such as dry savannas and

grasslands A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natural ...

.Smithers, R. 1983. The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion. University of Pretoria: Pretoria, Republic of South Africa.

Lifespan

While knowledge on the lifespan of short-snouted elephant shrews are limited, one specimen lived 4.2 years in captivity.Richard Weigl (2005) Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World. Kleine Senckenberg-Reihe 48: Stuttgart.

Physical description

Short-snouted elephant shrews have an average length of 21 cm from head to tail and weigh 1.41 to 2.11oz on average. They have varied brown body fur with white, buffy or off-white rings around the eyes and upper lip. They have brownish-yellow patches behind the ears. While they have the long, narrow snout symbolic of elephant shrews, their snouts are shorter than the snouts of other species and a bit tapered.Nowak, R. 1991. Walker's Mammals of the World Fifth Edition Volume 1. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. The small size of the short-snouted elephant shrew makes it potential prey for birds of prey, big cats and snakes.Mcarthur, Yvonne. Awesome Facts about Elephant Shrews. Scribol. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Reproduction

Short-snouted elephant shrews form

monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...

relationships and mate for life. Females are able to produce five to six litters per year with a

gestation period In mammals, pregnancy is the period of reproduction during which a female carries one or more live offspring from implantation in the uterus through gestation. It begins when a fertilized zygote implants in the female's uterus, and ends once it ...

of 57 to 65 days. Each litter consists of one to two individuals that are born fully furred, open-eyed and able to run almost immediately after birth. Young are 10g when born, and it takes them 50 days to reach adult size. After approximately 15 days, offspring establish their own home ranges.

Behavior

Short-snouted elephant shrews are diurnal with their most active period being early morning. While they are sometimes in pairs, they are mostly solitary animals. They are a fast moving species that scurries from place to place and avoids open areas without cover. Short-snouted elephant shrews exhibit a high degree of territoriality with each sex driving individuals of their own sex out of the pair's territory. They utilize a network of safety burrows by digging their own burrows or stealing pre-existing burrows of rodents.

Diet

Short-snouted elephant shrews are mainly

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

. Their primary diet consists of ants, termites,

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

s and crickets. However, they are opportunistic foragers and will feed on vegetation,

fruits In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particula ...

and

seeds A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm pl ...

if necessary.Leirs, H., R. Verhagen, W. Verhagen, M. Perrin. 1995. The Biology of Elephantulus brachyrhynchus. Mammal Review, Volume 25, Nos 1 and 2: 45-49.

Communication

Short-snouted elephant shrews communicated through

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

and

tactile Tactile may refer to: * Tactile, related to the sense of touch * Haptics (disambiguation) * Tactile (device), a text-to-braille translation device See also * Tangibility, in law * Somatosensory system In physiology, the somatosensory system ...

means.Elephantulus Brachyrhynchus (short-snouted Elephant-shrew)." Animal Diversity Web. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Elephantulus_brachyrhynchus/>. Each short-snouted elephant shrew marks its trails with scent glands located behind its ears. Marking territory serves two purposes for short-snouted elephant shrews: establishing

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

and alerting their mate of their location. They often exhibit a behavior called footdrumming, which is rapid tapping of the hind legs. This

behavior Behavior (American English) or behaviour ( British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as w ...

is exhibited in response to a stressful situation like

mating In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite- sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually rep ...

or avoiding a

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

.Faurie, A., E. Dempster, M. Perrin. 1996. Footdrumming patterns of southern African elephant-shrews. Mammalia, volume 60, n4: 567-576.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1767975 Elephant shrews Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Mammals described in 1836