Transferred from the Leipzig zoo, the new resident is a five-month-old male soon to be joined by a female, the Warsaw Zoological Garden was quoted as saying.
"Over time, we also plan to introduce a group of Tanzanian white-eye birds (Zosterops eurycritotus) to their enclosure,” the zoo announced.
"Both species naturally inhabit Tanzania, so we hope they will co-exist harmoniously," it added.
The black and rufous elephant shrew is a small insectivorous mammal native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae. It measures about 30 centimetres in length and weighs around 700 grams.
The zoo explained that calling the species elephant shrew is not without reason as, despite resembling a shrew in appearance, it is more closely related to an elephant.
This animal is distinguished by its long and flexible trunk, which is actually an elongated nose and upper lip, used for digging up beetles and turning over leaf litter. Its long tongue helps it easily crush insects.
Elephant shrews are among the fastest small mammals, capable of reaching speeds up to 30 kph.
The black and rufous elephant shrew is extremely rare in zoos. Only about 40 individuals are housed in 14 European zoos. In Poland, besides Warsaw, they can also be seen at the Wrocław zoo in the country's southwest.
Over the past decade, the population of elephant shrews in the wild has declined by 30 percent, primarily due to deforestation, according to the PAP news agency.
(mo/gs)
Source: PAP
