Species Spotlight: Cuban Solenodon
Species spotlight:
Venomous incisors, a goat-like odour, and butt nipples!? What’s not to love about one of the most evolutionary distinct mammals on earth!
Names & Nicknames: Cuban solenodon, Almiquí, Donny
Size: At 28-39cm nose to bum and 1kg in weight, they are kind of like a guinea pig, if you added a 20ish cm tail, pointy snout, and armpit glands (more on those later)...
Smell: Cuban solenodons, much like teenage boys, have stinky armpits and groins. Special glands in these regions produce a musky scent said to smell like goat!
Communication: Cuban solenodons are family lovers, living together in family groups with as many as 8 Donnys in the same burrow. The mother leads these family groups; the father prefers a different method (see love language section). When it comes to home disputes, they're happy to talk things through, communicating with each other with a series of twitters, chirps, squeaks, and clicks. They have also been observed greeting each other with their mouths open but not making any audible sound (to us that is), so they might also be communicating at frequencies too high for humans to hear!
Favourite Hangout: These cool chicos and chicas are found in one place and one place only, the forests of the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountain range in Eastern Cuba. They would love to be a bit more widespread, but they are very forest-dependent, and all of their forests are getting cut down!
Favourite Snack: Cuban solenodons are generalist omnivores, which is a fancy term for ‘they really aren't fussed’. Although their preferred snack is a tasty insect or worm, they are happy to munch on other invertebrates, lizards, frogs, small birds, fruit, roots, and leaves.
Eating Habits: Although they may be small and prefer to snack on insects, they are also capable of tackling some larger prey such as lizards, frogs, and even small birds. They do this by delivering a nasty surprise, a bite containing a pumpful of venom that they inject through grooves in their lower incisors. They are one of the very few venomous mammals!
Toilet Humour: Solenodon poop is said to be very easy to identify as it is packed full of chitinous material (bits of insect shell and stray legs etc) and still has that goat-like odour. Keep your eyes peeled.
Love Language: Not exactly the Romeos of the animal kingdom. Male and female adults only meet up to breed; meeting, doing the deed, and leaving- there is no need for small talk! The male will then mate with many other females, leaving the ladies to all the childcare, charming!
If you see them: Cuban solenodons are nocturnal, spending the days sleeping in underground burrows. They are so rarely seen that they were thought to be extinct at the end of the 19th century, until they were re-discovered in the mid-1970s!
Red Flags: One of the major threats to Cuban solenodons is habitat loss; these critters are very partial to their forest homes, but these homes are unfortunately being cut down to sell the trees and make way for mines. They, like their green feathered friends, the Kakapo, hate invasive species. Historically, the Cuban solenodon had no predators, but now, with the introduction of cats, dogs, and mongooses to Cuba, they are slow, clumsy, and struggle to escape these alien predators.
Epic Journeys: Cuban solenodons aren't one of the world's great migrators like a leatherback or swift; movement is not their forte. They are known for their signature awkward, waddling run; they can't jump and run on their tip-toes. Despite this, they can move surprisingly quickly over short bursts and are pretty good climbers, not good enough to always escape those pesky invasive predators, though!
Glow-up: Cuban solenodon mothers will give birth to one to three babies in their underground nesting burrow. The male is long gone by this point, so she must provide for and look after the kids. Initially the young will cling onto her nipples which are bizarrley located almost on her butt and as there are only two of them, if there are three babies, only two will survive.
Facts: Cuban solenodons alongside their Hispaniolan siblings, the Hispaniolan solenodon, are some of the most evolutionary distinct mammals on earth. They are the last known survivors of an ancient group that lived alongside the dinosaurs 76 million years ago!
Who are they in the friendship group: Weird, shy, but can give a nasty bite if threatened.
Name:
Cuban Solenodon
Habitat:
Mountainous forests in the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountain range in eastern Cuba
Diet:
Generalised omnivores (like meat as well as veggies) feeding mainly on invertebrates like insects and worms but also lizards, frogs, small birds, fruit, roots, and leaves
Size:
28-39cm nose to rear, plus a 17-25cm tail. They weigh roughly 1kg
Behaviour:
Nocturnal and social, living in small family groups
Predators:
No natural predators - but now predated on by invasive mongooses, cats, and dogs
Lifespan:
5 years
Threats:
Habitat loss and invasive species
Conservation status:
Endangered
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