Top 15 Weirdest Animals in the World

Page 6 of 16

#5 Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus)

Streaked Tenrec - Photo: Arto Hakola/Shutterstock

Facts

Class: Mammals
Order: Afrosoricida
Family: Tenrecs
Distribution: Madagascar
Habitat: Tropcial rainforest

Quite prickly! The little punk from the jungle

Hard to read and almost a tongue twister: The striped possum! This tiny mammal resembles a colorful blend of a large bumblebee and a small hedgehog. With its yellow and black striped fur and wild spiky hairstyle on its head, it truly stands out in the jungle underbrush. Despite its spiky appearance, this creature weighs no more than a bar of chocolate.

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When danger approaches, this little guy doesn’t hide at all. On the contrary: To defend itself, it raises the spines on its neck straight forward and makes a small, brave leap right at the attacker! With this move, it aims to jab the sharp tips into the snout or paws of its foe. Quite courageous for such a small animal!

Secret Language: An Animal That "Speaks" with Spines

But the spines can do something even crazier: This animal uses them to create music or sounds! On its back, the striped tenrec has a unique set of spines. When it rubs them together very quickly, a high, rattling sound is produced. Biologists refer to this phenomenon as stridulation – it works similarly to crickets rubbing their wings together.

Since it is often very dark in the dense rainforest of Madagascar, the tenrec family uses these sounds as a secret language. This way, the parents can keep in touch with their young ones without alerting dangerous predators. The human ear can hardly hear these extremely high-pitched sounds at all.

What’s on the Menu?

The striped tenrec is a diligent worker. With its long, pointed snout, it digs for hours in the moist forest floor searching for its absolute favorite food: earthworms! Once it spots a worm, it grabs it with its teeth and skillfully pulls it out of the ground. To avoid slipping on the wet, muddy rainforest floor while eating, it often rhythmically stomps its front paws on the ground while searching.

Continue to page 6: A fish with a bright red kiss!

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On the next page, a sea creature awaits you that looks like it just secretly borrowed mom's lipstick. It has a bright squeaky red face! Although it is a fish, it is a terrible swimmer. Instead, it prefers to take strolls in the sea! Click ahead now to discover what the funny sea bat is all about!