Animal: Echidna

Scientific Name: Numerous, depending on the type and species

Animal Type: Mammal

Habitats: Island and Scrubland

The Echidna:

Echidnas are small mammals that look similar to porcupines and hedgehogs. They are also known as "spiny anteaters". They are one of only two mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. The other is the platypus an equally odd looking character.

Physical Characteristics:

Echidnas are small mammals that are covered with coarse hair and spines. Superficially they resemble both the anteaters of South America and other spiny mammals like hedgehogs and porcupines. They have snouts which have the functions of both the mouth and nose. Their snouts are elongated and slender. They have very short, strong limbs with large claws and are powerful diggers. Echidnas have a tiny mouth and a toothless jaw.

The female lays a single soft-shelled, leathery egg twenty-two days after mating and deposits it directly into her pouch. Hatching takes ten days; the young echidna, called a puggle, then sucks milk from the pores of the two milk patches and remains in the pouch for forty-five to fifty-five days, at which time it starts to develop spines. The mother digs a nursery burrow and deposits the puggle, returning every five days to suckle it until it is weaned at seven months.

Food Chain:

They feed by tearing open soft logs, anthills and the like, and use their long, sticky tongue which protrudes from their snout to collect their prey. The Short-beaked Echidna's diet consists largely of ants and termites, while the Zaglossus species typically eat worms and insect larvae.

Habitat features:

The Echidna is native to New Guinea and Australia. Thus it tends to live in island and scrubland habitats. They are known to build defensive burrows using their strong digging ability.