Biologist Grace Wambui stumbled across the odd animal while searching for the rare golden-rumped elephant shrew in the mostly inaccessible Boni-Dodori coastal forest in northeastern Kenya.

Wambui, a fellow at the Zoological Society of London's EDGE of Existence program, didn't recognize the new elephant shrew's markings.

After observing the mystery animal, Wambui and colleagues set up a network of camera traps, which were triggered by the elephant shrews' heat and movement. To date, the cameras have snapped more than 20 pictures of the elusive beasts, which appear to be active during daylight hours.

(See camera-trap pictures of a giant armadillo and other rare