Is It a Hedgehog, a Mole or a Pokémon?
Meet the tenrecs! Some of them look like hedgehogs, and others are more like shrews or moles. Some species even look like Pokémon. They are so unique that they cannot be compared with anything else on earth.
Tenrecs are "endemic”. This means they are found in only one place in the world. If you want to spot one of the 31 species of tenrecs in the wild, you will need to go to Madagascar, a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean.
Not hedgehogs
This is the greater hedgehog tenrec. It has quills. And yes, it can roll up into a ball. But no, it is not - repeat not - related to a hedgehog at all. Their last common ancestor lived about 160 million years ago, and the evolutionary lines have diverged since that time. In fact, tenrecs are members of the superorder "Afrotheria", which includes a number of mammals that originated in Africa. This means they are more closely related to elephants than hedgehogs.
Convergent evolution
So why do tenrecs still look so much like hedgehogs, moles and shrews? The answer is "convergent evolution”. This means that animal species that are not closely related can still develop the same characteristics because their habitat and conditions (e.g. their food and their predators) are similar.
In the case of the tenrecs, this means that they faced a habitat and conditions in Madagascar that were similar to the situation of hedgehogs, moles and shrews in other parts of the world. They responded by developing the same characteristics. For example, the hedgehog and the hedgehog tenrec both have quills to protect themselves from predators, and both the mole and the mole-like rice tenrec have strong front legs to dig their underground burrows.
The streaked tenrec
One specific type of tenrec that deserves a closer look is the lowland streaked tenrec. It is not very big (only about 15 cm long), but it looks very striking with its crest of quills and the black and yellow stripes on its back. The lowland streaked tenrec uses some of its quills - the ones on its lower back - for communication. When it rubs them together, they make an ultrasonic sound (which cannot be heard by humans). The animal may use this to guide its young through the dense undergrowth. The lowland streaked tenrec uses other quills to defend itself. It raises its quills and jumps at potential predators to scare them away. So don't come too close!