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Tailless tenrec - TENREC ECAUDATUS
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Tenrec": "Tenrec" is from the Madagascar Malagasy word "tandraka."
Description: A large, shrewlike creature with elongated snout, vestigial tail, and short limbs, the tailless tenrec has thin coarse fur, almost spiny, with red and brown hair scattered with long, black hairs on its back, and lighter beneath. Its head and body length is about 10-15", and it weighs about 3-4.5 lbs, females much smaller.
Location: Madagascar and introduced on nearby islands.
Habitat: Undergrowth in rain forests and gallery forests.
Behavior: The tenrec is terrestrial and burrowing. In winter it hibernates deep in its burrow with the entrance plugged. Active mostly at night, usually alone or in family groups, it eats earthworms, grubs, grasshoppers, and possibly small vertebrates. The tenrec forages with its nose to the ground, probing the forest litter and soil, digging out prey once located. When faced with an enemy, it responds by raising the stiff hairs at the crest of its head and along the middle of its back, stamping its forefeet, hissing, and it may open its mouth very wide as a threatening gesture. The tenrec defends itself with quick, slashing bites. The tailless tenrec was formerly in the genus Centetes.
Reproduction: Breeding is in spring, October-November, with a gestation of 58 to 64 days. There is usually only one litter per year with 16 to 32 offspring (21 on average), which are weaned at 25 to 30 days of age.
Go to the Insectivores Page to get a general discussion of these animals.
Go to the Streaked Tenrec or the Hedgehog Tenrec to study the other two tenrecs in America Zoo.
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