Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
They’re roly-poly, prickly and precious: meet our lesser tenrec babies! Parents Luke and Bun welcomed their litter of five July 18—the first of their species born at the Small Mammal House since 2017. Get to know our growing tenrec family: nationalzoo.si.edu.
. . .
Tenrecs are fun to enrich. We especially enjoy watching them take a dust bath! Tenrecs roll around in the dust and use their paws to rub it into their spines—a natural behavior called scent anointing. In the wild, tenrecs can use these scents as camouflage and parasite repellent.
They’re roly-poly, prickly and precious: meet our lesser tenrec babies! Parents Luke and Bun welcomed their litter of five July 18—the first of their species born at the Small Mammal House since 2017. Get to know our growing tenrec family: nationalzoo.si.edu.
. . .
Tenrecs are fun to enrich. We especially enjoy watching them take a dust bath! Tenrecs roll around in the dust and use their paws to rub it into their spines—a natural behavior called scent anointing. In the wild, tenrecs can use these scents as camouflage and parasite repellent.
