Environment
Solenodon, 7th Freakiest Animal You Have to See to Believe
- Monday, July 16, 2012 2:46 PM
NEW YORK, NY, USA (defend.ht) - This animal has been called everything from weird to lovable, but is one of the most rare and least known animals in the world, it's called the Solenodon and is native to Haiti.
Solednodon Paradoxus is a nocturnal, burrowing, insect-eating mammal that produces venom. Animals of this family type, solenodontidae, are of interests to phylogenticists because it is an animal that has retained its primitive characteristics that date back to the end of the age of the dinosaurs.
Lucy Cooke ranked the Hispaniolan and Cubanus variety of this animal as the 7th in the world on her list of "Freaky Animals You Have to See to Believe."
Cooke writes in HuffPo:
Another loveable island freak, the solenodon (pronounced alarmingly like Celine Dion) is a large shrew whose claim to fame is that he's one of only a handful of mammals to produce venom. He's found in the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Haiti where he spends his days sleeping and his nights hunting insects, which he kills with his venomous saliva. Another curious trait of this extremely eccentric creature is that the female's nipples are situated on her rear end, just above her buttocks, which means her children, whilst being weaned, get a somewhat bum deal.
Solenodons are endangered species. The rare Hispanolian Solenodon was thought to be extinct until quite recently in 2005. Scientist say that the animal is very elusive but is widely distributed throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
