Colours of Wildlife: Round-Eared Elephant Shrew
Created | Updated Mar 5, 2017
Round-Eared Elephant Shrew
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
Again something uniquely African! This is a Round-Eared Elephant Shrew, or Sengi, Macroscelides proboscideus. I've already told you about the much larger Four-Toed Sengi. This is a very different little crittur, only about the size of a house mouse – reaching an overall length of 23 cm/9" and a weight of 40g/about 1.5 ounces. At present, just a single species of round-eared elephant shrew is recognized, and it constitutes the genus Macroscelides all on its own. It can indeed be recognized by its large, rounded ears, which do not protrude above its skull as in the other elephant shrew species. It has remarkably expanded bony chambers, or bullae, containing its inner ear mechanisms, which make its skull distinctive. Apart from that, it is a rather unremarkable species, with a greyish to warm brown body colour, and a blackish tail. It doesn't have the prominent white rings around its eyes which the other small sengis have. With other elephant shrews it shares the long, thin limbs, especially the hind legs, with which it can move with very long and rapid leaps, if it feels threatened. It also has the long, thin and mobile snout, which is typical for the entire group. Indeed, the order to which the elephant shrews or sengis belong, the Macroscelidea, is named after this species. Like the other small elephant shrew genus, Elephantulus, it has five toes per foot – front and back.
As I say in the article dealing with the Four-Toed Sengi, this species is not a shrew at all, and not a mouse or a rodent either. It belongs to a group that is associated with Africa, and called the Afrotheria. Its closest relatives are hyraxes, golden moles, tenrecs and even elephants! Ancient sengis were more diverse than the species that remain. There are indications that the extinct species included ones that were more herbivorous than the insect-eating modern ones.
Tiny Desert-Dweller
Unlike the larger four-toed sengi, this species lives not in forest but in dry desert or semi-desert regions. It never occurs in flat, open, sandy desert, but prefers places with lots of rocks and shrubs so that it has many hiding places. Its distribution stretches from the dry Karoo of South Africa into the Namib Desert and the surrounding dry region of Namibia, and just entering the southwestern corner of Botswana. It is thus entirely confined to the Southern African subregion. It goes about mainly by day, and usually singly, but sometimes in couples. They dwell in well-concealed holes, which might be 'found' crevices, but which they sometimes enlarge or dig themselves. These have entrances as well as emergency exits. From there they use well-trodden little paths, with plenty of hiding places along the way. But they do enjoy sitting in the open and basking in the sun, especially on cold winter mornings. When frightened by a predator, they first leap straight into the air and then bound away very fast, using their powerful hind legs, for the shelter of bushes and ultimately their own burrows.
These small mammals eat insects and invertebrates. They're specifically noted for eating ants, termites and spiders, critters which survive very well in the dry lands. They have remarkably long tongues, coated in sticky saliva, which help them to rapidly lap up the small insects. They also eat a small amount of vegetable food such as green shoots and fruits. They use these tongues for grooming also, and can even lick their own eyes clean, like geckoes and also okapis. They lick their faces clean after feeding. Their eyes have membranes that protect them against bites while they feed. They have cheek pouches in which they can store excess food as they forage; they may rapidly gather in a bunch of insects and then go to eat it in peace and safety under a bush. They don't need to drink, getting the moisture they need from the juicy bodies of their invertebrate food. They're able to go into torpor – like very short periods of hibernation – during cold nights.
Round-eared elephant shrews use sight, sound and smell for marking and managing their territories. They'll see and watch their neighbours; they also have scent glands below their tails and sweat glands on their feet to mark their territories wherever they move. They will also drum with their hind feet, the sound being used to greet their mates and also to warn competitors away. They occasionally utter thin squeaks. Couples don't interact much, despite sharing territories. They briefly meet and mate. The female gives birth to one or two babies. They are comparatively large and born fully furred, with open eyes, and able to move about easily. They reach sexual maturity at the age of six weeks.
At present, this species is not threatened. The dry regions where it lives comprise about half the total surface of South Africa and in addition to that almost half the country of Namibia as well. Furthermore, as these barren regions are never heavily populated, most of its habitat remains intact. This bodes well for this cute and fascinating little mammal.
