Interesting Facts
Did You Know!
My partner and I chose this organism because our lab professor
suggested it to us and after looking it up we decided that it looked
interesting and we wanted to learn more about it. You should find
this organism interesting for many reasons including the following:
-
For one, just the shape and color of the tenrec catches your eye.
-
It has quills like a porcupine and is brightly colored with yellow. The Mantis shrimp is also very colorful!
-
Its life span is also only 2.7 years when in captivity which is shorter compared to the close relative of the highland streaked tenrec who can live up to three years. (Koxk 2009).
-
Tenrecs can be eaten just like domestic cows! They are used for exotic game meat! (Koxk 2009).
-
Some interesting things about its relative the highland streaked tenrec is that they go into a torpor state all throughout winter. This is not the case with the lowland streaked tenrec which can go in and out of the torpor state depending on the climate (Stephenson 1994).
-
It’s only located in one place in the entire world, Madagascar, which is where ring-tailed lemurs are found too (Koxk 2009)!
-
It's related to the Nimba Otter Shrew, Robust Golden Mole, and the Giant Golden Mole (Arkive 2003).
-
They can actually communicate with their quills if they get separated and need to find each other (Koxk 2009). Below is a short Youtube video showing this!
Check out Lowland tenrecs using quill communication here! -
The lowland streaked tenrec has a larger forelimb structure than that of a related species of common rice tenrec (Endo et al. 2007).
Check out some cool photos of the lowland streaked tenrec here!