what the heck are these things that's a question that scientists have been asking themselves for centuries at different times they've been likened to moles dick dick elephants and shrews and because of their General shape and long snout we called them elephant shrews but as we learn more about them we're realizing they're weirder than we ever thought because of this their old name is falling out of fashion and sangi their local name is quickly becoming the standard these are the singi Africa's secretive sprinters hi I'm daniil Duo and you're watching animal logic sangis or elephant shrews
are some of the most mysterious animals in Africa they live close to hundreds of millions of people but most humans can go their entire lives without seeing one alive why is that sangis are found in Africa from Morocco to South Africa they don't live in subsaharan West Africa but nobody really knows why some of the habitat there seems like Prime sangi stomping grounds but for whatever reason they just don't seem to like it there are about 20 recognized species and they range in size from the shed elephant shrew a perfect ball of fur roughly 13
cm long about as long as a cell phone to the golden rumped sangi which is about three times bigger but wait let's back it up for a second you might be thinking are these the venomous echolocating little guys you hear about in the news no those are true shrews they're amazing in their own right and they deserve their own episode but stick around until the end of this episode and we'll show you some of our favorite true shrews now back to sangis from a distance sangis look like classic insec tierens they might not look at
of place next to selod moles and moon rats yes Moon rats are a thing but the similarities are just superficial a case of convergent evolution Africa was isolated from the Cretaceous to about 20 million years ago this was a time before carnivorans rodents and dulet made it onto the continent the descendants of the mammals that lived in Africa back then are more closely related to each other than to the mammals that got there later that means that sangis are genetically closer to elephants arvar and dongs and to true shrews but anyways enough about their family
tree let's look at what these little guys do sangis are voracious insectivores with an extremely high metabolism some species spend 80% of their day looking for food their long SNES probe the ground and their massive tongues flick food down their gullet they're like miniature anteaters on stilts their whole life consists of looking for bugs patrolling their territories to prevent other sis from stealing their bugs and trailblazing elephant shrews are monogamous but they don't spend a lot of time together they share a plot of land and the female protects it from other females just as artly
as males protect it from other males but they for on their own sleep by themselves and if one dies they get quickly replaced the one aspect where there's some cooperation is Trail maintenance sis need clean trails to make quick escapes a single Pebble or twig could trip them off balance and allow predators to catch them when the females are nursing babies the males do about 80% of the trailblazing and maintenance helping her spend less time in the path of predators if there's one thing we can be sure about in Africa it's that there are predators
everywhere mambas Forest cobras Marshall Eagles and Vero eagle owls among many others will happily take a sangi thankfully elephant shrews are fast fast they can run faster than the average human and use their network of trails to disappear into the bush they also know they're quick and sometimes when they spot a predator they will scream at it rather than immediately hiding this means hey I can see you and I'm faster than you don't even try to come at me and sometimes it works Sonic the sangi would have made a lot more sense than the Hedgehog
wouldn't it there's some speculation that the shiny butt of the golden rumped elephant shrew is a warning to Predators saying I see you and I'm Not Afraid unfortunately their beautiful derrier is a sight that is growing rarer because like many other species their habitat is quickly disappearing cats are another problem growing human populations bring a lot of pets that often go feral and Destroy local Wildlife populations another cool thing about sangis are their vertical ellipse eyes like cat eyes it's both cute and creepy kind of makes me wonder about my cat sometimes now I promised
I'd talk about some of the coolest TRS little sneak peek of their own episode here are some of the world's greatest non- elephant shrews the at truscan shrew is the smallest mammal alive the bumblebee bat is shorter but in terms of mass nothing is tinier than the 2 gr shrew it has a lightning fast metabolism its heart beats 1,500 times a minute and this forces it to eat twice its own weight every day but that's not really saying much this little guy is found from Spain to Southeast Asia a true liliputian survivor the hero shrew
is a little less cute but a lot more impressive it has a unique spine with interlocking vertebrae despite it being just about 100 Gams it can support the weight of an adult person without suffering any injuries just please don't try it the Eurasian water shrew has water repellent fur can hunt underwater and produces venomous saliva this Venom can be lethal to their main competition for food the field vo some shrews like the northern short-tailed shw uses their venom to hunt prey thanks to the toxins in its saliva it can down animals larger than itself and
finally the common shrew like the at truscan shrew this little mammal's heart beats faster than a hummingbird's heart 1,000 beats per minute but the coolest thing about them is that they can echolocate to navigate dark environments it's a rudimentary version of a bat system but it's still pretty awesome so there you have it the coolest little mammals sis and shrews an amazing world of small mammals we rarely get to see but one that makes their ecosystems a more Whimsical [Music] place so what should we talk about next rather than shrews please please let me know
in the comments and don't forget to subscribe for new episodes every week thanks for watching see you [Music]
