Lesser hedgehog tenrec

Echinops telfairi

Family tenrecidae, order Afrosoricida, superorder Afrotheria (the elephants, sengis, manatees, aardvarks, and hyraxes)

These guys bear an uncanny resemblance to another African animal: the four toed hedgehog.

But four toed hedgehog’s are in an entirely different clade! Laurasiatheria, like pangolins, cats, dogs, moles, deer, and rhinos.

All tenrecs have a cloaca like reptiles, so these guys only have one hole to excrete waste.

They’re terrestrial and spend the day curled up sleeping under leaves, logs and anything else they can hide under. If it’s really hot, they sleep splayed out.

They eat insects and sometimes small vertebrates. They forage alone with the exception of mothers foraging with young.

They’ve become common exotic pets. I’ve held one before.

These guys are in a relatively new proposed clade: Afroinsectiphilia. These guys are afrotherians that were thought to be in Insectivora, which is not considered a legitimate group anymore.

@jackalspine @lemon-snake