Meet Nigel The 'Coendou' – The Cutest Animal You've Never Seen (Pics & Video)

Cuteness comes in all shapes, sizes, and...textures? Yep! Even prickly critters can tip the charts on the sweetness scale, and Nigel is no exception. This cool dude is one of Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium's most unusual species, a coendou, which falls under the porcupine family. They're sometimes called prehensile-tailed porcupines because of their tail's ability to grasp objects, and if that's not cool, we don't know what is.

Nigel had his 10th birthday in July 2022. He received treat and ear-softly-scratching and was filmed by zookeeper Adrienne. The video has reached 620.5 thousand views with 36 thousand heart icons. His expression was priceless and made people think of a cactus puppy. This coendou also grabs food and snack as a person does.