the elephant shrew, also called sengi, are any of 16 species of rat-sized african mammals named for their long, tapered, and flexible snout (proboscis). all have slim bodies, slender limbs, and very long hind legs and feet. although they resemble shrews, they are not insectivores but constitute the mammalian order macroscelidea. long thought to be related to shrews, they are actually more closely related to elephants than to shrews although this was not known or even widely believed until the 1990s.