You can find this tiny animal in the rainforests of Madagascar while it’s sniffing among the leaves. Because of her circular shaped body and lengthy snout, she seems like the cross between a little mouse and a hedgehog. Nevertheless, her bee-stripes don’t make you overlook her.

© RYAN M. BOLTON/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

You may think that those lowland streaked tenrecs look very lovely, but in fact they‘re body is full of spikes. Because of the fact that they can‘t roll up like hedgehogs to protect themselves of others, these tiny animals use their spikes as a self-defense.

When a hostile animal approaches, the tiny animal arrays her yellow spikes in a mohawk style on her head and neck and moves on with her head first. Her quills can peel off like those of a porcupine and regrow fast for the next time she‘s in need of them.

The spikes assist them to communicate as well. As well as crickets and locusts, these animals talk to their same kind using a procedure named stridulation. They rub certain spines on their body, which then create high-pitched vibrations which merely other tenrecs are able to hear. Today this tiny tenrec is the only mammal beknown to create sounds in this manner.

While in the rainy season, these animals start searching for a partner and romance each other with a certain sniffing procedure. They have an offspring of up to 11 babies yearly. Both parents care for the babies and keep staying close them. Once the babies are born, they grow very quick and leave the den after approximately a week and mature then in a bit more than a month.

Thankfully these animals are not endangered, nevertheless they are vulnerable because of habitat loss. Not many people know that these tenrecs exist, yet they gain new admirers on a daily basis due to their fancy hairstyle and matchless language.