The taming of the sengi

After a necessary hiatus needed to work on my MSc, I'm posting once again, because I need to let you all know about this insanely adorable animal:

Commonly known as elephant shrews, these creatures are also more accurately known as "sengis", a term from the Bantu languages of Africa. They are not actually related to shrews, and belong to a different family altogether (Macroscelididae, as opposed to the shrew's Soricidae). The above is known as a 'round-eared sengi',

Another one.

Bonus: munching sengi (click for animation). Not sure if this is the same species as above, but from the eye size and markings I'd say no.

Next up, the rufous sengi.

Rufous sengi looking as cute as possible. Image credit: California Academy of Sciences

But I've saved my favourite 'til last, the black and rufous sengi:

They are native to Africa, and their long noses are used to poke under leaves in finding food (mainly insects).

Read more about these guys here.

Ball of fluff

Russian Dwarf Hamster, courtesy of Cute Overload :)

Introducing something with fluff... the pika

An American pika

I've covered some birds and fish now and so I'm going to move into mammal territory - with the pika. There are actually 30 different species of this guy, and they come from the same family as rabbits and hares, but the thing they have in common is that they're all alpine/mountainous creatures, living in crevasses/burrows.

Adult and juvenile black-lipped pikas (China). Image credit: David Blank

Another pika, species unknown

Some people may be wondering whether the pika was inspiration for the Japanese-originated Pokemon, Pikachu. I really have no idea, but there is a similarity there.