Adoption of the Month - Echidna

Echidnas are small, solitary mammals covered with coarse hair and spines. Superficially, they resemble the anteaters of South America and other spiny mammals such as hedgehogs and porcupines. They have snouts which have the functions of both mouth and nose. Their snouts are elongated and slender. Like the platypus, they are equipped with electrosensors, but while the platypus has 40,000 electroreceptors on its bill, the long-billed echidna has only 2,000, and the short-billed echidna, which lives in a drier environment, has no more than 400 located at the tip of its snout. They have very short, strong limbs with large claws, and are powerful diggers. Echidnas have a tiny mouth and a toothless jaw.

The echidna feeds by tearing open soft logs, anthills and the like, and using its long, sticky tongue, which protrudes from its snout, to collect prey. The short-beaked echidna's diet consists largely of ants and termites, while the Zaglossus species typically eats worms and insect larvae.




Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's Puggle (baby echidna) above is the 17th born in captivity worldwide. We also have the 19th puggle in the pouch and we are just waiting for it to come out and start burrowing.

Echidnas are monotreme, along with the Platypus the Echidna is the only other egg laying mammal. The egg is incubated in the pouch and takes about 10days to hatch. The puggle is carried in the pouch for about 3-4months.

 

Click here to adopt an Echidna >>