This large sengi has a checkered back and a long, mobile snout. It is active by day and searches on the ground for ants, termites and other invertebrates.
Chestnut and pale patches form a checkered pattern on the back. Its long, tapered snout helps it pick up small food items.
The checkered sengi is a giant elephant shrew of East African forests. In Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains, researchers compared the subspecies Rhynchocyon cirnei reichardi with the nearby grey-faced sengi. Samples from five localities were used to examine the evolutionary relationship between the two lineages.
Species-tree analyses recovered them as distinct lineages. Mitochondrial DNA in some populations also carried evidence of ancient introgression. The researchers used distribution models to explore how past climate-related changes in forest extent might have shaped where these mountain animals lived.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The Udzungwa checkered sengi subspecies was recovered as a lineage distinct from the nearby grey-faced sengi. Some populations retain evidence of ancient introgression, and the study also examines the history of mountain forests and species distributions.