DYNAMISM OF MY MADAGASCAR TENREC ON MY LAP

The poster model – madagascar tenrec Jorek Byrnison – artist’s sweetheart pet.

Tenrecs are a group of mammals mainly found on Madagascar. They are endemic, meaning they aren’t naturally found anywhere else in the world.

Tenrecs are a very diverse group, as a result of adaptive radiation, and exhibit convergent evolution. They occupy aquatic, arboreal, terrestial and fossorial environments. All tenrecs are believed to descend from a common ancestor that lived 29–37 million years ago after rafting over from Africa.

Tenrecs are among the few terrestrial mammals that echolocate. They have a low body temperature, sufficiently low that they do not require a scrotum to cool their sperm as do most other mammals.