Fun Facts about our adorable tenrec, Nigel:
– Nicknames: Nigel’s full name is Nigel Thornberry. His keepers sometimes refer to him as spikeball.
– Personality: Brave and curious
– In the summertime, Nigel is a total adventurer. Using his impressive climbing skills, Nigel explores every inch of his vacation yard. He also makes it a point to scavenge the grass for crickets and mealworms. When he is outside, he is on the move!
– Nigel is an impressive cricket hunter. Even though tenrecs don’t have the best eyesight, they will use their whiskers and sharp hearing to locate a cricket. Nigel will use his sense of smell and hearing to follow the movement of a cricket, and then quickly dart after it and snatch it with his hands and mouth.
– Because Nigel goes into torpor, a type of hibernation, he spends long periods of the winter sleeping curled up in a spiky ball. His tenrec-sized tent and cozy igloo are his favorite snuggle spots.
– Even Nigel enjoys a bit of pampering! Nigel is given the opportunity to take dust baths multiple times a week. Nigel scoots around on his soft belly and rubs handfuls of dust into his spines. You can watch Nigel taking a dust bath on CMZoo’s Facebook channel here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1410923186055914