I’m in Andasibe, Madagascar. I’ve seen various lemurs, chameleons, geckos, etc, but my favorite animal so far was a tiny baby tenrec.
It had bright yellow spines on its head and a blackish body. We had inadvertently cornered it against a stone wall, with no easy escape. So, despite being only about 3 inches long, it decided to try to intimidate us. It lunged and feinted menacingly with its spiky head and made it clear that any stupid monkeys that tried to mess with it would get a handful of spines.
Suitably chastened we backed off. It then resumed its stroll. With perhaps a hint of a swagger.
Googling later, it turns out to have been a Lowland Streaked Tenrec. They are noted for being pugnacious and if we hadn’t backed off it would have probably escalated to a charge-attack and head-butted us. Not surprisingly, local predators avoid them.
