New Giant Shrew Discovered In Tanzania

-
It seems there is still much left to be discovered about life on Earth. This, just in:


An elephant among elephant shrews has been found in remote forests in East Africa, scientists announced today.

The previously unknown, squirrel-size species is the world's largest known elephant shrew and the only new species from the group to be discovered in more than a century, wildlife researchers say.

Weighing about 1.5 pounds (700 grams), the gray-faced sengi (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis) is up to 50 percent heavier than the next largest species of elephant shrew, according to the study team that named the long-snouted creature.

The animal was first identified in 2005 by motion-sensing cameras set up in the Udzungwa Mountains of south-central Tanzania by Francesco Rovero of the Trento Museum of Natural Sciences in Italy. National Geographic

Note: in 2005, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, working in conjunction with other partners, discovered, in Tanzania too, Africa's first new species of monkey in over 20 years. This new discovery of the Elephant shrew, proves, even more, that there are still many more discoveries to be made in Africa.

Photo: Cnet

Popular posts from this blog

The Albatross

-
Image
They have have been called the grandest living flying machine on Earth . No wonder: the Albatross has a wing span of 3 meters and a body mass of up to 12 kilograms. They can live for up to as long as 60 years. But as they have one of the lowest reproductive rates of any birds and as they are being hunted and killed, they may become extinct. Biologists have discovered that swordfish, tuna and other fishing fleets, are catching these birds while fishing, and are killing more that tens of thousands of these birds every year. In a couple of decades many species may be wiped out unless urgent action is taken . More: British Antarctic Survey , Save The Albatross , Endangered , National Geographic , WWF , Facts , petcaretips , Earthlife , antarcticaconnection , coolantarctica , Wikipedia , Encarta , Ecuador Travel , Books
Read more

Rwanda Genocide Deniers

-
Image
It's very shocking and extremely disturbing that, there are some people who deny that there was Genocide in Rwanda ; there are those who have been trying hard to spread lies and propaganda and twist real facts and the truth about the Rwandan genocide; there are those who deny that , it took meticulous planning - resulting in about 800,000 Tutsis and some Hutus, systematically being brutally butchered, in Rwanda, in 1994: .........thousands of children butchered individually, by machete. And the massacres at hundreds of churches, mostly Catholic churches at that. Not to mention the systematic gang rapes of Tutsi women and girls which led the international tribunal to define rape as an act of genocide when part of an extermination campaign. The genocide, while it coincided with the civil war and was clearly driven by the politics around the conflict, was mostly carried out by civilians against civilians far from the front. There was no "other side". There were the murde
Read more

Dinder National Park Sudan

-
Image
Dinder - Sudan Situated in the East of the country, very close to the Ethiopian border, about 400 km. (205 mi.) south-east of Khartoum - Sudan's capital city, is Dinder National Park (DNP) - some times called Dinda ( In Arabic: محميه الدندر ) . Covering about 6,475 sq. km. (2,500 sq. mi.) - some estimates say the park covers a much larger area; which would make it one of the largest in Africa. Established in 1935, it is the most important wildlife reserve in Northern Sudan. It is one of the two parks in the country  designated as Biosphere Reserves . The other is Radom National Park (RNP) in southern Darfur. The park, in Dinder District, Sennar State, like all game parks and reserves in Sudan, is confronted with several threatening problems such as trespassing livestock, poaching, increased human settlements and encroachment in the surrounding areas. Like all game parks and reserves in Sudan, you can hardly find any detailed information on the park. Photos of it, too, are v
Read more