Lesser Hedgehog Tenrecs

[DavidBrown]

Anyone know if there are any streaked tenrec's anywhere in the United States?

To build on the question, what zoos have tenrecs period in the U.S. and do we only have lesser and greater hedgehog tenrecs here?

I know that the Sacramento Zoo and San Diego Safari Park have lessers that they use in their education programs. The National Zoo supposedly has lesser and greaters in their small mammal house.

 

[FWC]

There was a guy who had some greater and lesser streaked's for sale a month or so back. So I can assume there are at least a few floating around in the private sector.

 

[Pacarana]

There was a guy who had some greater and lesser streaked's for sale a month or so back. So I can assume there are at least a few floating around in the private sector.

Ken's exotics is now a retired business... I sadly haven't seen any of his tenrec stock floating around.

 

[FWC]

Ken's exotics is now a retired business... I sadly haven't seen any of his tenrec stock floating around.

Ya, but he only "retired" a couple of months ago

Also who knows, he might have sold some, might not have...He was kind of pricey...

 

[stubeanz]

Hiya guys, all has been a little crazy so haven't looked at the forum for a while but my original litter of 4 have now weaned and one has even found a wonderful home

Believe it or not my other female has now given birth as well and after hearing others keep the adult male in with the female during birth and weaning I have decided to do just that. So far all is well but as it was the first birth for her I haven't looked into the nest and seen how many there are yet!

I will write up another thread for the "other" birth but I will let you all know the great news that we have had a 3 banded armadillo born, I will tell you more about it in the other thread

 

[stubeanz]

Anyone know if there are any streaked tenrec's anywhere in the United States?

From speaking with friends in North America, there are no streaked species of tenrec at all but there are a few breeders of lesser and greater hedgehog tenrecs. However not as many as in the UK or Europe, where all 5 spiny species are kept bred.

 

[vogelcommando]

In post # 21 I mentioned a French lab working with tenrecs. In found the sourch ( the book The song of the Dodo ) and found out it was a Madagascarian lab where the english scientist P.J. Stephenson did research on severaql species.

 

[stubeanz]

In post # 21 I mentioned a French lab working with tenrecs. In found the sourch ( the book The song of the Dodo ) and found out it was a Madagascarian lab where the english scientist P.J. Stephenson did research on severaql species.

In the book 'The Tenrecs - A study in mammalian behaviour and evolution'
The studies are described in depth and include some worrying tests on predator and prey interactions, where different predators were introduced to tenrecs and different prey items were introduced to tenrecs. I imagine just to discover how they killed or were killed themselves!

It is a great book and probably the best study ever produced on tenrecs

 

[Pacarana]

Hiya guys, all has been a little crazy so haven't looked at the forum for a while but my original litter of 4 have now weaned and one has even found a wonderful home

Believe it or not my other female has now given birth as well and after hearing others keep the adult male in with the female during birth and weaning I have decided to do just that. So far all is well but as it was the first birth for her I haven't looked into the nest and seen how many there are yet!

I will write up another thread for the "other" birth but I will let you all know the great news that we have had a 3 banded armadillo born, I will tell you more about it in the other thread

That's wonderful news for both your tenrecs and armadillo, stubeanz! Do you have any other mammals in your collection?

 

[Pacarana]

Ya, but he only "retired" a couple of months ago

Also who knows, he might have sold some, might not have...He was kind of pricey...

I'm glad someone else has my opinion on the price. Though I do think he had a steal for tree shrews if I remember correctly. Maybe it was the fishing cats... Either way, there was one in particular that I thought was a very good price. I was very interested in his hand-raised paca, but if I remember correctly, they were a couple 1000! I believe it was S&S that had theres for half of that, no bottle babies though...

 

[stubeanz]

That's wonderful news for both your tenrecs and armadillo, stubeanz! Do you have any other mammals in your collection?

Most are quite common, we keep striped skunk, meerkat, chinchilla and African Pygmy hedgehog.
We also keep a couple more unusual bits like the tenrecs, 2 species of armadillo, African Pygmy mice and grey short tailed opposum.

I should really get around to writing another thread on some of the unusual ones!

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Most are quite common, we keep striped skunk, meerkat, chinchilla and African Pygmy hedgehog.
We also keep a couple more unusual bits like the tenrecs, 2 species of armadillo, African Pygmy mice and grey short tailed opposum.

I should really get around to writing another thread on some of the unusual ones!

Another very nice species which is dirt common in private hands but all but unknown in zoos - as such I have never seen one, nor any other opossum actually

 

[stubeanz]

Hi all,

I totally forgot to mention this but tomorrow 27/09/2013 i will be co-presenting a lecture at the Science Uncovered event at the Natural History Museum.

This of course will be on my most favourite of subjects... Tenrecs!

I will be co-presenting with the Natural History Museum curator of mammals Roberto Portela Miguez, who knows more about mammals than you could shake a mammal infested stick at!

We will also have a live lesser hedgehog tenrec during the talk and I imagine the information will be full of tenrec goodness!

They also have many other events happening throughout the evening with around 400 scientists attending and loads of opportunities to discuss science with them, so get yourselves down there and enjoy the science... There's even a bar !

Here's the link
Science Uncovered | Natural History Museum

 

[stubeanz]

Figured I had better post an update!

So the tenrecs all brumated well over winter and came out around mid-February as I slowly raised the temps. Within about a week the pairs mated and so I expect some babies to be born about end of April/start of May time.


I will also be adding another tenrec species to my collection within the next few weeks so I shall keep you all posted about that as well

 

[Caesar]

I would love to import some streaked tenrecs into the U.S. From Europe or Japan could anyone give me some advise on how to do that

 

[animal_expert01]

There isnt much going on in the private collections part of the forum these days and so i thought i would join the few private keepers posting on here and add one of my favourite animals in my own collection.

I have kept Lesser Hedgehog Tenrecs for a number of years and they are a fascinating animal to keep. I find they are a lot more friendly than other spiny creatures i have worked with, they tame very well and have an amazing natural history.

I have 6 in total consisting of 2 pairs and a related male and female who are from previous years breeding and are kept sperarate. The pairs are currently brumating in the hope that they will breed around April 2013.

It is not only the lessers that are kept privately but also, Common Tenrec(Tenrec ecaudatus), both species of Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus + Hemicentetes nigriceps) and Greater Tenrec (Setifer setosus).
In fact all of the 5 spiny tenrec species are kept in the UK, although the Lessers are the most commonly kept.

I've attached two pictures, one of my adults and one of a 3 month old youngster that was born earlier this year.

Please can you post pictures of your the tenrecs enclosure.

 

[stubeanz]

I would love to import some streaked tenrecs into the U.S. From Europe or Japan could anyone give me some advise on how to do that

You will not be able to do this, I know many people who have tried. they stress very easily and I doubt they would survive the journey. Maybe if you imported in bulk but then that very unethical IMO.

Even if you could they would have a very low survival rate, streaked tenrecs require a massive amount of food and most don't survive long unless you have some real dedicated keepers.

They are the only two species of spiky tenrec I don't keep as they are really too specialist and don't really florish in captivity.

 

[Caesar]

You will not be able to do this, I know many people who have tried. they stress very easily and I doubt they would survive the journey. Maybe if you imported in bulk but then that very unethical IMO.

Even if you could they would have a very low survival rate, streaked tenrecs require a massive amount of food and most don't survive long unless you have some real dedicated keepers.

They are the only two species of spiky tenrec I don't keep as they are really too specialist and don't really florish in captivity.

Totally understandable I'm moving over to Eastern Europe soon anyway do to my family's job change. But like you said the species is quite hard to take care of and will probably be stressed thanks for finally answering.

 

[Zygodactyl]

@stubeanz: I know that this thread is on the lesser hedgehog tenrecs, but would you be willing to share some pics and experiences with your other two species as well? Lesser hedgehog tenrecs are relatively easy to find in the US, however I don't know of anybody breeding the greater hedgehog or common tenrecs.

I'd be curious as to the reasons for that. Is it just that the lessers breed easier, or are they also easier to care for/have nicer temperaments?

 

[tenrec]

Some of the "non-spiny" tenrecs were indeed kept and even bred in at Tsimbazaza Zoo in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo from 1988 to 1990. (The programme was briefly mentioned above in this thread - associated with the name of PJ Stephenson.) The other researchers were Paul Racey and Felix Rakotondraparany, and together they published a nice little paper entitled "Maintenance and reproduction of tenrecs (Tenrecidae) at Parc Tsimbazaza, Madagascar" in the International Zoo Yearbook 33 (1994): pp 194-201. With permission of ZSL, I was able to make the article available online many years ago: Maintenance and reproduction of tenrecs (Tenrecidae) at Parc Tsimbazaza, Madagascar

Species kept (breeding success marked with asterisk; note that the M. cowani litter, one litter of M. talazaci and two litters of M. dobsoni were conceived by females already pregnant when taken into captivity):

Setifer setosus
Echinops telfairi
Hemicentetes nigriceps*
Hemicentetes semispinosus*
(and now it get's really interesting...)
Oryzorictes hova
Microgale cowani*
Microgale dobsoni*
Microgale longirostris
Microgale melanorrhachis
Microgale talazaci*
Limnogale mergulus
Geogale aurita*

Interestingly, at least one Hemicentetes nigriceps lived for more than three years.

There is another paper published in IZY (which I believe I could dig out of my archives if anyone is interested): EISENBERG, J. F. & MALINIAK, E. (1974): The reproduction of the genus Microgale in captivity. International Zoo Yearbook 14: 108-110.

The full book (also mentioned above in this thread) The Tenrecs: A Study in Mammalian Behavior and Evolution is available for free online at The Tenrecs: a study in mammalian behavior and evolution
Eisenberg & Gould write on page 23:
"One specimen of Microgale cowani is over 365 days of age. Two specimens of M. (Nesogale) talazaci have lived in excess of 670 days and two specimens of M. (N.) dobsoni have survived an equal length of time."
They also cite Malzy, who was able to keep Limnogale mergulus for a short period of time.

Poduschka also seems to have kept (and bred?) Microgale in the 1970's. A wealth of tenrec articles by this author is listed in the bibliography.

There is a small thread on Microgale in captivity in the Tenrec Forum at Tenrec Forum: Microgale Species
PJ Stephenson writes: "From my experience in Madagascar, the larger Microgale species (e.g. M. talazaci and M. dobsoni) are relatively easy to keep. M. dobsoni is actually quite a docile animal and easy to handle; in contrast, M. talzaci [sic] never gets habituated to handling and can be very aggressive. Smaller species of the cowani size range are difficult to maintain; we need to know more about their diet and habitat needs."

Fascinating, all of this. I'm still dreaming of a tenrec breeding centre with all the Tenrecinae and several Microgale, and maybe Geogale and Limnogale thrown in for good measure... So far, I've only kept and bred Echinops telfairi and (regrettably) kept two juvenile Hemicentetes semispinosus for a short time (they were captive-bred and taken from their mother too early I believe; one of them died soon and the other never thrived - I returned the animal to the breeder in hope for its survival there.) But all my tenrec experience was long ago in the late 1990's and early 2000's.