home - animals - mammals - tenrec
Tenrec
Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec
Echinops telfaeri
Found in Madagascar, Tenrecs are omnivorous which means they eat both meat and vegetation. In the wild they would eat insects, a few bits of fruit and vegetables and also any meat they come across. In captivity we feed them a diet of high quality cat biscuit, we also add small pieces of vegetable and a variety of insects.
- Live for up to 13 years.
- Live bearing mammals and can have up to 30 young.
- Adults reach around 15 centimetres.
- Habitat being tropical woodland and savannah
- A nocturnal mammal.
Crazy fact
Even though a tenrec looks like a hedgehog, it is not related to hedgehogs at all. They have evolved separately to look like hedgehogs and replace the niche that hedgehogs would live in.


