Here are the 10 things you want to know about baby echidnas!
10 - Get Me Outta Here!
Echidnas are monotremes, which are egg-laying mammals.
Yep, in case you didn’t know, there are mammals that lay eggs!
Actually, the echidnas, together with the platypus, are the only living mammals left
on Earth that lay eggs!
Typically, echidnas breed between July and August.
The female lays a single soft-shelled, leathery egg 22 days after mating, and deposits it
directly into her pouch.
An egg weighs only 1 to 2 grams, and is only around half an inch long – it’s basically
the size of a coin!
Echidnas can grow up to 20 inches in length and weigh between 6 and 15 pounds.
When hatching, the baby echidna cracks open its leathery shell with a reptile-like egg
tooth.
How baby animals know what to do, we have no clue, but we’re glad they do!
The young echidna, which by the way is also called a puggle, is born looking pretty weird!
Each baby remains in its mom’s pouch for anywhere from 45 to 55 days more.
When their so called spines start to develop, which we’ll get into later, well, it’s
time to leave the pouch!
The mom digs a nursery burrow and deposits the young puggles, returning every five days
to suckle them until they’re weaned at seven months.
Puggles will stay within their mother's den for up to a year before leaving!
Hey, doesn’t this sound like some people who live with their parents until 30?!
Okay okay, we’re just joking….kinda!
By the way, do us a favor and hit that like button!
9 - Spiny Protrusions Once these little guys start growing, their
body gets covered with spines.
If you think about it, they really look like anteaters and other spiny mammals such as
hedgehogs and porcupines.
But in this case, their spines look scary, but they do serve a purpose.
However, they aren’t even really spines – they’re actually hair!
The thing is that their long spines are made of keratin, the same protein that’s in our
hair and nails.
Each spine can be up to two inches long and have sharp ends that help the animal protect
itself from predators.
There are muscles at the base of each spine that allow the echidna to control the movement
of the spines independently.
This comes in handy for wedging itself tightly into rock crevices for protection, or getting
up if it ever gets rolled onto its back.
Even with their spines, echidnas can still become a tasty meal for animals such as dingos,
feral cats, foxes, and Tasmanian devils.
Another big threat to echidnas are cars on the highway, as hundreds of these guys are
hit each year as they try to cross roads!
8 - Where They Live The echidna is native to Australia & New Guinea.
There are four living species of Echidna left in two families, the short-beaked echidna
and the long-beaked echidnas.
Actually, even though the echidna species are called long-beaked or short-beaked, echidnas
don't have beaks!
Really, they just have very long noses, which they use to sniff out food and other ummm...goodies.
Echidnas are found in forests and woodlands, hiding under vegetation, roots, or piles of
debris.
Individual echidnas have large, mutually overlapping territories and they supposedly are able to
tolerate each other okay.
Being native to Australia, you’d think they love the heat, but in fact, quite the opposite
is true!
Echidnas don’t tolerate extreme temperatures well!!
When summer rolls by, they use caves and rock crevices to hide from the harsh summer heat.
Oh, and despite the fact that they prefer not to be in water, echidnas are pretty good
swimmers.
Apparently, whenever they want to spruce up a bit, they’re known to journey in rivers
and lakes in order to groom and bathe themselves!
Hey, we love cooling down in water over here too!
7 - What’s an Echidna Anyways?!
Echidnas are named after Echidna, a creature from Greek mythology who was half-woman, half-snake.
Oh okay then….!
Anyways, echidnas were perceived to have qualities of both mammals and reptiles.
Echidna lived alone in a cave and she was the partner of a fearsome monster named Typhoon.
She was also the mother of other monsters in Greek mythology.
Anyways, echidnas are also more commonly known as spiny anteaters even though echidnas aren’t
at all related to the real anteaters in America.
First of all, the echidnas are smarter than the anteaters but also, not all echidnas eat
ants!
The short-beaked echidna’s diet consists largely of ants and termites.
However, the long-beaked species typically eat worms and insect larvae.
The tongues of the long-beaked echidnas are sharp and slim, so that they can capture their
food more easily.
6 - They get scared easily!
Echidnas are very timid animals.
When faced with danger, the echidna has three options.
They can run away on its short, stubby legs, dig a hole to hide, or curl up like a ball.
What do you guys think their best option is?
If you said, dig a hole, you’re right!
Some people say it can dig a hole just as fast as a human using a shovel can!
The echidna digs straight into the dirt until only a spiny rear end can be seen, making
it almost impossible for a predator to grab it and pull it out.
It can also protect itself by curling up into a tight, spiky ball, hiding its face and feet.
Echidnas are also pretty good when it comes to tree climbing so that’s one more way
to get out of a life-or-death situation.
Their most common predators include animals such as wild cats, foxes, and snakes.
Snakes pose a large threat to the echidna because they slither into their burrows and
prey on the young spineless puggles who are unable to protect themselves.
If you ever happen to come across an echidna, don’t grab them – it’ll make freak them
out and picking them up improperly may even result in injury, both for you and for them!
5 - Electric Noses The echidnas are unique for one more reason.
They’re the only land-based mammal to have developed electroreception.
That’s the ability to sense the natural electrical fields emitted by all living creatures
through the use of electroreceptors in their snouts!
C’mon, you gotta admit, that’s pretty cool.
Since this ability works much better in water or in very damp areas on land, it’s thought
to be an evolutionary throwback and an indication that they shared an ancestor with the platypus.
Remember, echidnas only go in the water for a quick bath or just to cool off!
The long-beaked echidnas have around 2,000 electroreceptors in their snout but the short-beaked
echidnas only have around 400, grouped in the narrow end.
As a comparison, the platypus has around 40,000 in its snout because it spends more time in
the water and its electroreceptors serve a much better purpose!
4 - Pearly Whites?
When they’re babies, echidnas feed their babies milk, just like other mammals.
But the mothers don’t have any nips.
Instead, female echidnas have special glands in their pouches called milk patches that
secrete milk, which the toothless baby echidna laps up!
When they’re fully grown, echidnas have tiny mouths and toothless jaws at the end
of their slender snouts.
Yup, even grown echidnas don’t have any teeth!
Instead, they use their long, sticky tongues to feed.
An echidna’s tongue can reach up to 7 inches in length when it’s extended.
Echidnas prefer eating termites, ants and other soft & squishy soil creatures.
Apparently, they particularly love beetle larvae.
Their strong claws help them break open logs to get to termites and then they scoop larvae
up with their long tongues!
3 - Lifespan Echidnas, as long as they’re not disturbed,
can live a loooooooong life – up to 50 years in captivity and an estimated 45 years in
the wild!
The reason for their unusual long lifespan is their low body temperature and slow metabolic
rate.
Echidnas have the lowest body temperature of any mammal, at 89 degrees Fahrenheit.
Their body temperatures aren’t controlled in the same way as those of other mammals
and its temperature can fluctuate by a few degrees over the course of the day.
Having a low body temperature means their metabolism rate slows down as well, which
is thought to be one of the reasons why they live so long.
Interestingly enough, they’re still pretty active during the day.
However, once summer gets by, they’ll often become nocturnal to avoid the heat!
Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re not fans of colder weather neither.
In fact, echidnas hibernate during the cold winter months in burrows.
And this is probably the most interesting fact – no matter the season of the year,
they can only enter REM sleep when their bodies are around 77 degrees Fahrenheit!
2 - Hey What’s Up Girl A strange process marks the start of the echidna
breeding season.
Males line up nose to tail behind a single female, forming a line of up to a dozen males.
These lines can last more than a month, with males dropping out and rejoining.
When the female is finally ready to mate, the males dig a trench in the ground around
her.
The males compete for mating honors by pushing each other out of the trench.
The last one remaining gets to mate with the female.
Seriously, how do animals make up mating rituals?
Male echidnas may also mate with hibernating females.
Males sometimes wake up from hibernation early and sneak into the burrows of still-hibernating
females.
This can result in female echidnas waking up from hibernation and finding themselves
pregnant while the male has already disappeared out of sight.
Yeahhhh…….we have a word for that one.
However, possibly the weirdest thing about a male echidna is that the male echidna has
a ummm….four headed…..yeah, you know what.
So how do you use something with 4 heads?!
During mating, two of the heads shut down while the other two grow to fit into the female's
two-branched reproductive tract.
Males alternate the heads they use each time.
That’s just confusing to us over here!
1 - Smarter than a fifth grader?
Echidnas have unusually large brains for their size.
Part of this might be because of their enlarged neocortex, which makes up half of the echidna's
brain.
Compare this to about 30 percent in most other mammals and 80 percent in humans, and you’ll
realize that they’re most likely way smarter than they look.
It was long thought that because of their brain size, echidnas didn't enter REM sleep
at all, the type of sleep associated with dreaming in humans.
But like we mentioned earlier, researchers found echidnas will experience REM sleep only
if they're at the right temperature at around 77 °F.
Despite looking so mellow, echidnas know how to get things done.
They have large territories that they go over looking for food.
Some scientists believe that echidnas have probably the same level of intelligence as
cats.
However that’s the problem.
Because of how smart they are, they’re great at avoiding people, such as the scientists
who want to study them furthermore.
As of 2018, echidnas remain one of the most mysterious cute animals out there!
Here’s what’s next!