When it's a tenrec! Although the Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec sure looks like a hedgehog, it's actually a very different animal. The tenrec family comprises animals that look like hedgehogs, opossums and even otters, but are actually a great example of convergent evolution. Isolated from many other would-be mammalian competitors in Madagascar for millions of years, the humble tenrec evolved into many different species filling niches commonly occupied by a wider variety of mammals.
This little fellow was born at the Potter Park Zoo in Michigan on June 24th to one of the only breeding females in the United States.
One cup of baby tenrec please
Photo credits: Dr. Tara Harrison / Potter Park Zoo
