Echidna

Echidnas belong to a group of animals called monotremes, which are a type of mammal. Australia has two types of monotremes: the echidna and the platypus. Monotremes have less control over their body temperature than other mammals.

Echidnas survive in many different habitats, in hot deserts, snowy mountains, cool forests and grasslands they hibernate in winter. Their body temperature drops when they hibernate.

Echidnas are found throughout Australia. The Tasmanian echidna is the largest found in Australia.

When the early settlers in Australia first saw the spiny anteater or echidna, they called it a native porcupine because of its sharp quills. Unlike a porcupine or a hedgehog, an echidna lays eggs.

Adult echidnas are covered in sharp spines about 6 to 7 cm. with long coarse hair growing in between the stiff spines. In cold areas, the hair between the spines is long which keeps the echidna warm whereas in hot areas, the hair is shorter. This can make echidnas look very different. The spines help to protect the echidna from dingoes, feral cats and foxes. When further protection is needed the echidna curls into a ball and clings firmly to the ground. They can dig a sink-hide to hide in less than two minutes.

An echidna can walk about as fast as a person and leave shuffling claw prints in the dirt. They are most at risk near roads and cars and trucks because they are small and slow-moving, echidnas often kill highways.

Echidnas snuffle a lot when sand and grit become mixed up with their food.

It has small mouth, just big enough to let its sticky tongue flash in and out to catch food. They eat mostly termites, grubs and ants. They use their strong front legs to dig up the ant and termite nests. Echidnas have no teeth. They crush their food between hard ridges at the top of their mouth and horny patches at the back of their tongue. When they eat, they make a rumbling, scratching noise. Echidnas also snort or blow through their noses to clear the dirt from their nostrils. The adult echidnas weigh five kilograms and are up to 50 centimetre long. They are shy animals and are not a threat to people.

Echidnas breed between June and August. During this season a females grows a temporary small pouch where she puts her egg in. She makes the pouch by using her strong muscles to gather together the skin across her lower stomach. The echidna’s egg is soft-shelled, like a turtle egg. After two weeks a tiny echidna, not much more than a centimetre long, hatches. When a baby echidna is hatched it is blue-grey and has almost no back legs.

It is blind and has no fur. The young echidna after leaving the pouch, it stays in the nesting burrow until it is six to eight months old. During the mother will leave the young alone for a week and over at a time, while she hunts for food

The baby echidna stays in the pouch, feeding the iron-rich pink milk until it is six months old, weighs about 400 grams and its spines have started to grow.

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