Echidna

Echidnas are known better as spiny anteaters, although they are not related to them, besides that fact that both anteaters and echidnas eat ants and termites. The echidna is found in parts of New Guinea and Australia.

The echidna has a long tongue around 18cm long that can whip in and out of its mouth at incredible speeds. This helps the echidna to forage for ants an termites.

The echidna was named after a monster in Greek mythology! The echidna can dig incredibly well due to its long claws, meaning that echidna are able to escape danger by digging straight down.

The echidna is a small mammal and the echidna has a long snout that acts as both the mouth and nose of the echidna. The echidna has no teeth and the echidna feeds by tearing soft logs apart and then using its long, sticky tongue to feed on the ants and termites that inhabit the log.

The echidna is a very special mammal and, along with the platypus, the echidna is the only other egg-laying mammal in the world. The echidna lays eggs that have a soft shell and are kept in the pouch of the female echidna until the eggs hatch in a couple of weeks. The young echidna remains in the pouch of the female echidna for around 50 weeks, when the baby echidna has grown spikes. The mother echidna then transfers the young echidna to a nursery burrow and returns every few days to feed the baby until it is around seven months old.

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Spikey Egg-Laying Mammals

All the different kinds on mammals share a lot of common traits. They’re warm blooded, have 7 cervical vertebrae, breathe air, have hair and give milk to their young to feed on. Almost all mammals, when giving birth, produce a live young. However, there are certain species that step out of this trait.

Monotreme, which is the order where Echidnas and Platypuses are found, actually lay eggs. Another particular trait that these mammals have that makes them different is that they secrete milk and store them in packets for their young. Both of these egg-laying animals are found in New Guinea and Australia.

Echidnas are probably the least known of the only two egg-laying mammals. Also known as the spiny anteaters, Echidnas would spend hours looking for termites and ants to eat on the forest floor. As adults, they uses their long tongues to pull out and collect those little insects, but they do have teeth which they don’t have much use for.

Their teeth are actually more useful to them as babies. As they develop in their eggs, a special tooth comes out which helps them to break out of the egg’s shell. Once they get out of the egg, they can then feed off their mother though milk packets since the tooth can make feeding time painful for the mother.

She carries the baby, called a puggle, around with her inside her pouch for around 45-55 days. By this time, the puggle would have started to develop its spines, so she needs to place it safely inside a burrow and continues to take care of it for a few more months.

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