Walk on the Wild Side!
by Prue Simmons
What animal has a beak, lays eggs, can swim, is covered in
spines and can live for over 50 years? A Tachyglossus aculeatus
of course! Also known as the Echidna.
The echidna is a famous Australian icon. A relative of the
other Australian monotreme (egg laying mammal) - the Platypus, the echidna has an unusual biology and fascinating lifestyle
in the Australian bush.
Here are some interesting facts about this Aussie favourite:
The ‘beak’ of an echidna is actually a tube-like nose and mouth
that has a very long and sticky tongue inside that quickly licks
up ants and insects. In fact, their scientific name Tachyglossus
means ‘swift tongue’!
On the menu for the echidna are ants, termites, beetles,
grubs, earthworms and nematodes, and they spend a lot of
their day digging through leaf litter, tearing into termite mounds
and carefully digging through the soil in search for this high protein treat. This helps the bushland ecology by keeping insect
numbers down, turning the soil and mixing through fungus and
humus.
Echidnas have been on Earth for a very looong time. They
were trundling alongside Tyrannosaurus Rex and his dinosaur
friends 120 million years ago and remain relatively unchanged
in their appearance since then!
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The baby echidna is called a Puggle. When the tiny
puggle hatches from the egg it is the size of a jelly bean. The
puggle grabs onto the hairs on its mothers belly and drinks milk
from pores in her skin. When it gets a bit bigger, the puggle
is left in a shallow burrow and the female comes back to feed
it every 5 days. After 7 months it has a full set of spines and is
completely independent.
One of the most surprising things about the echidna is that
although they are seen far and wide, we actually don’t know
how many there are in Australia? How can we tell if their numbers are declining? Predators such as dogs, cats and foxes have
an impact on echidnas, but one of the biggest impacts on echidnas are humans. Many echidnas die on our roads or lose their
vital habitat due to housing development.
YOU can help with echidna research. If you see an echidna,
be sure to report it on the Echidna Watch website, so that scientists can learn where echidnas are living and how many there
might be. No matter where you are in the world, you can learn
more about this fantastic creature and talk about it with your
friends, family and teachers.
We still have lots to learn about the amazing creature! Find
out as much as you can about this incredible spiny ant-lovin’
creature at www.echidna.edu.au.
Listen to Prue’s podcast