Round-eared elephant shrews (Macroscelides proboscideus), also known as round-eared sengis, are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae.

Adult shrews have a head-body length of about 4 inches (10.5 cm) and a tail length of about 4.7 inches (12 cm). Body-weight ranges from 31 to 47 g.

The shrews live in desert and semi-desert areas of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. They eat insects, shoots, and roots.

The tiny creatures are among only a handful of monogamous mammals, making them a model group for the study of monogamy.

Bizarrely, they are not thought to be directly linked to their shrew cousins in other parts of the world and are more closely related to elephants.

“They might look like a shrew but, fascinatingly, our new arrivals are in fact distantly related to manatees, aardvarks, hyraxes and elephants,” explained James Andrewes, assistant team manager at the Chester Zoo.

“They’re a really charismatic and intriguing little species and, having now had our first successes with encouraging them to breed, we’re beginning to learn more and more about them.”

“In fact, there are 19 different species of sengis, which are very poorly known in the wild and only as recently as last year a new species was discovered in Namibia.”