(Screenshot from Reuters video)
CHESTER, ENGLAND, United Kingdom (Reuters) — A quartet of eye-catching new individuals arrived at Chester Zoo, England.
Native to Madagascar, the distinctive looking lowland streaked tenrecs are “striped like a bee and covered in spines like a hedgehog,” the zoo said in an e-mail.
A video shot on Monday (March 27) shows the little known animals as they explore their habitat at the facility.
The new arrivals are believed to be the only lowland streaked tenrecs “to be found in any of the world’s leading zoos,” Chester Zoo said.
The species communicates by rubbing body parts, the zoo said, which is a unique trait among mammals.
“If they need to communicate with one another then, much like a violinist rubbing their bow across their violin strings, they have special quills on their backs which they brush together to produce high pitched squeaks. They are the only mammals in the world that are known to do this,” said Dave White, Chester Zoo team manager.
“They are part of a highly threatened wider taxonomic group. The loss of a tenrec would mean the loss of millions of years of evolution and a huge amount of scientific knowledge that we’re yet to uncover about these unique mammals,” White said.