Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew (Rhynchocyon petersi)

This lovely, lovely creature is for my friend Dana. I’m happy that there are several other elephant shrew species left to draw, though this one is the most colorful, I think. In fact, I almost wish I had saved it for my planned Colorful Mammals Week, but I couldn’t wait. An interesting thing about elephant shrews, also called sengis, is how many times they’ve been miscategorized by the scientific community, who have thought they were related to just about every possible group of mammals. Now, though, they think they’re unique, not closely related to any other living family.

California Academy of Sciences sengi site