Biology:Tailless tenrec

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Short description: Species of mammal

Tailless tenrec[1]
Tanrek.jpg
Scientific classification edit
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Afrosoricida
Suborder: Tenrecomorpha
Family: Tenrecidae
Subfamily: Tenrecinae
Genus: Tenrec
Lacépède, 1799
Species:
T. ecaudatus
Binomial name
Tenrec ecaudatus
(Schreber, 1778)
Tenrec ecaudatus range map.svg
Tailless tenrec range

The tailless tenrec (Tenrec ecaudatus), also known as the common tenrec, is a species of mammal in the family Tenrecidae. It is the only member of the genus Tenrec. Native to Madagascar , it is also found on the Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, and Seychelles island groups, where it has been purposely introduced.[2] Its natural habitat is the understory of subtropical-tropical forest, open forest, arid shrub-land, savanna, arable land, pastures, crop plantations, private gardens, and some landscaped, urban areas.[2]

The tailless tenrec is the largest species of the tenrec family, Tenrecidae. It is 26 to 39 cm (10 to 15 in) in length and weighs up to 2 kilograms (4.4 lb).[2] It has medium-sized, coarse grey to reddish-grey fur and long, sharp spines along its body. The animal is omnivorous and, unlike the herbivorous rodents for which it is often mistaken, possesses small, needle-like sharp teeth for a diet of larger invertebrates, frogs, reptiles, mice and other small mammals, as well as fruits, leaves and other vegetation.[3] If threatened, this tenrec will scream, erect its spiny hairs to a crest, jump, buck and bite. It shelters in a nest of grass and leaves under a rock, log or bush by day. It gives birth to a litter of as many as 32 young, with an average litter between 15 and 20 after a gestation of 50–60 days; when young, they have a black-and-white striped appearance. Despite being sometimes known as the tailless tenrec, they have a small tail 1 to 1.5 cm (0.39 to 0.59 in) in length.

The tailless tenrec was the first tropical mammal observed to hibernate, for long stretches of time without waking periods, up to nine months at a time.[4] The tailless tenrec is a host of the acanthocephalan intestinal parasite Promoniliformis ovocristatus.[5]

References

Wikidata ☰ Q852769 entry