Animal echidna Tatari. Echidna: photo and detailed description of the animal. Life and nursing of echidna cubs

Echidna are mammals from the same family of the order One-Pass. Their only truly close relative is the platypus. In addition, distant connections can be traced between echidna and more advanced insectivores: hedgehogs and shrews. The name echidna comes from the ancient Greek word "echinos" ("hedgehog") and is generated by the extreme prickiness of the beast. There are only 3 species of these mammals in the world: the Australian echidna, the prochidine Attenborough and the prochidine Bruyne.

Australian Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus).

Bruyne's passage (Zaglossus bruijni).

Physiologically, the viper is as primitive as the platypus. They have a low and unstable body temperature, varying between 30-35 ° C, during hibernation it can drop to 5 ° C. Thermoregulation is present at the embryonic level: the echidnas have no developed sweat glands, in the heat they can only slightly increase evaporation due to the frequency of inspirations and exhalations. By the way, echidna are incredibly resistant to oxygen deficiency, they can hold their breath for 12 minutes! The intestines, genitals, and excretory organs end in them, like in birds and platypuses, with a common duct - cloaca.

All species of these animals are narrow endemic. Australian echidna lives in Australia and New Guinea, on the island of Tasmania lives its special, Tasmanian, subspecies. As for prokhidn, both of these species live exclusively on the island of New Guinea. The habitats of the echidnas are very diverse; they can be found in the foothills of Western Australia and in the semi-deserts in the center of the continent. Accordingly, the lifestyle of animals varies in different parts of the range. In the foothills, where snow falls in winter, echidnas hibernate, in warm areas they stay awake all year round; in temperate climates they are active at any time of the day; in semi-deserts they go hunting only on a cool night. Animals sleep in holes.

Echidna overcomes the swimming pool.

These animals keep one by one, meeting with each other only in the mating season. Each individual adheres to a certain territory, however, the boundaries of the plots can be shared by neighbors. The echidna move slowly and rather awkwardly, because the bent claws prevent them from developing decent speed. At the same time, these animals swim well and are able to overcome even wide rivers. Due to low socialization, echidnas do not make any sounds.

The diet of these animals is very similar to the diet of shrews and hedgehogs. Their favorite food is ants and termites, which the echidna licks with a sticky tongue. A long tongue is ejected from the mouth with a frequency of 100 times per minute and is able to penetrate into the narrowest crevices. In addition, echidna eat earthworms, slugs, snails. Shells of mollusks and chitinous covers of insects are rubbed against the horn denticles, which cover the inner surface of the "beak." Interestingly, there is practically no acid in the stomach of echidna, as in other mammals, and the reaction of the gastric juice is close to neutral. The extraordinary sensitivity of the "nasal beak" helps them get food. In addition to the olfactory receptors, it has unique sensory organs, which, in addition to the echidna, are found only in the platypus, are electroreceptors. With their help, echidnas pick up electromagnetic waves emitted by prey. In addition to all these animals are able to hear infrasounds generated by the burrowing activity of insects.

The breeding season lasts at echidnas from May to September. At this time, individuals of both sexes emit a sharp musky smell, they turn their cesspools and rub them on the ground, leaving odorous marks. Up to 10 males can follow one female at a time! Moreover, the “suitors” line up depending on their rank and size. This “train” can travel for several weeks. Pregnancy lasts 22 days, after which the female lays 1-2 disproportionately small eggs in a bag on her stomach. The size of each egg does not exceed 13-17 mm; they have a soft leathery shell of cream color. Incubation lasts 10 days.

The caught female echidna took a defensive posture. In the center of the abdomen, a tiny egg can be seen laying it in a brood bag.

Hatching newborns in length barely reach 1.5 cm, and weigh 0.3-0.4 g! Their childhood passes in a hole dug by a parent. Unlike a hedgehog, which already a few hours after birth is covered with thorns, echidna babies remain naked for a long time. They lick milk directly from the surface of the mother’s skin, since these animals do not have formed mammary glands. Echidna grow quite slowly and become completely independent by only 7 months. But kids, even at an early age, can remain alone in the hole for a long time. They suffer the absence of a mother for 1-2 days without the slightest damage to their health, and then at a time they can drink an amount of milk equal to 20% of their body weight. Interestingly, echidnum milk changes its composition during the process of feeding and every month it becomes more nutritious. Milk is rich in iron compounds that give it a pinkish tint. Animals reach sexual maturity only by 4-5 years.

This young echidna nicknamed Bo was found on the road; he probably fell out of his mother’s bag. In the photo he is captured at 55 days of age.

In nature, echidnas have many natural enemies: Tasmanian devils, dingo dogs, pythons, monitor lizards, snakes prey on them. After the colonization of Australia, foxes and feral cats joined these predators. Echidna, despite the tiny bead eyes, are vigilant. They notice the approach of the enemy from afar and strive to leave unnoticed. In the case of pursuit, they begin to dig a hole, literally in a matter of seconds, plunging into soft soil. Outside, only a small portion of the prickly back remains sticking out, and the echidna can spend in this position relatively long without breathing. If digging burrows for any reason is impossible (the enemy is close or the ground is too hard), then the beast simply turns into a ball. These animals have a special ring muscle, like that of hedgehogs, allowing them to "pull" their own skin onto themselves. However, this method of defense is imperfect, since the ball is incomplete, sometimes the predator contrives to grab the echidna by its soft stomach and eat it. Nevertheless, the main factor affecting the reduction in the number of echidnas remains the reduction of habitats due to crowding out by humans.

Echidna used the “hedgehog” tactic; she covered the least protected parts of her body with her clawed paws.

Along with monotreme and insectivorous echidna are considered one of the most primitive mammals. Their intellectual efforts are aimed exclusively at finding food; these animals cannot be trained. But nevertheless, in comparison with the platypus, the brain of the echidna has a more complex cortex, which in captivity is expressed in some curiosity and an attempt to study unfamiliar objects. And the content of the viper is much simpler than the maintenance of the platypus. They calmly perceive the presence of people, they are happy to eat a variety of feeds, including those that are unusual for them in nature (for example, milk). Observers have repeatedly noted the phenomenon of extraordinary physical strength, completely unexpected for such small animals. So, once a curious echidna left in the kitchen moved ... a buffet filled with utensils. In addition, physiological studies have confirmed that even such primitive animals dream! True, in echidnas this process proceeds only under special conditions - with a decrease in body temperature to 25 ° C.

Echidna is an animal that resembles a porcupine in appearance, lays eggs like a bird, carries a cub in a bag, like a kangaroo, and eats like an anteater. Together with the platypus, this animal belongs to mammals that lay eggs.

Habitat

Echidna (animal), whose habitat is distributed only to Australia, Tasmania, can live in captivity. It adapts well to any environment, so today it can be found not only in the original environment, but also around the world.

Appearance

The echidna animal, the photo of which is presented, has a length of about 40 centimeters. Her back is covered with wool and needles. The head is relatively small immediately goes into the body. The mouth is presented in the form of a tube-shaped beak, in a small hole of which there is a long sticky tongue. Beak is the main organ for since vision is very poorly developed.

The animal moves on four short five-fingered legs, which are distinguished by their muscularity. There are long claws on the fingers, and a five-centimeter claw grows on the hind paw, with which the individual combs its needles. A short tail is also covered with needles.

The echidna (animal), the description of which is presented, is a squat, prickly small mammal, it very cleverly digs the earth and has a long tube-shaped beak.

Way of life

In the subtropic zone (Australia), echidnas are more active in summer nights. In the daytime during the hottest hours, they are placed in the shade and rest. With the onset of darkness, animals feel cool and leave their shelters.

In the cold regions of the continent, the onset of frost. In this case, the echidna inhibits their vital activity before the onset of heat. Animals do not belong to species that hibernate. But in the winter they can still fall asleep for a certain time.

They usually lead a nocturnal or twilight lifestyle. In the afternoon, they hide in cool places. Such shelters can be natural depressions in the soil, hollow trees, bushes.

Echidna is an animal that has fantastic dexterity. This helps him dig the ground and get his own food.

Nutrition

The main food for the animal is ants. With their beak, echidna skillfully dig the earth and get insects from termite mounds and anthills.

When the animal discovers an anthill, it immediately begins to dig it with sharp claws. Work does not stop until a deep tunnel erupts until the destruction of the solid outer layer of the structure.

A long tongue is thrust into the tunnel, the echidna (animal), which many biting ants are pressing on. It remains only to quickly return the tongue to the mouth with food. In addition to ants, land, sand, and tree bark enter the digestive system.

Such nutrition is very important for a mammal that lives in arid zones. With ants, echidna receives 70% moisture. Anteaters and armadillos survive in the same way.

If there is enough food in the mammalian environment, they do not change it. If necessary, they can go several kilometers.

Breeding

In ordinary life, the echidna is a solitary animal. Communication with other individuals occurs only during the mating season. In order for them to use special trails that are marked with a specific smell.

Behavior during the mating period is not fully understood. It is only known that after fertilization, the female produces an egg no more than 15 millimeters in diameter. Then she puts it in a bag with the help of a tail and a peritoneum. Scientists are not aware of cases of laying two or more eggs, but it is also impossible to talk about the rule of one egg.

Echidna is a marsupial animal. A female bag is not considered a permanent organ, like a kangaroo. It appears as a result of the tension of certain muscles. Moreover, if you give the female a sedative, this organ will disappear in a matter of minutes.

From the egg in the bag appears cub, the size of 12 millimeters. He is not adapted to independent life: covered with primary skin, blind, eats mother’s milk. He lives in a bag until he begins to weigh about 400 grams.

Method for feeding the echidna cub

Being in the bag, the cub does not leave it until the mother decides to pull it out. He feeds on her milk, which has a pinkish color and a very thick consistency. This is similar to a nutritious mixture of rabbits and dolphins.

Milk enters the bag through numerous openings from special glands. The kid licks it. The nutritional qualities of the mixture allow you not to adhere to a strict schedule in feeding. This is important when the mother pulls the cub out of the bag and hides it in the shelter.

Protection methods

The main means of protection are a shield with needles and claws. The animal has no natural enemies. But there are cases when they attacked the echidnas and ate them together with a shield of needles. Once a dead python was discovered with a stuck, prickly animal in it.

When danger is felt, the echidna (the cautious animal) very quickly begins to dig the earth around itself and hides in a hole in minutes, leaving only its needles in sight. Being on a hard surface, it folds into a ball, hiding its face and beak. The last resort is a fetid liquid, released in the event of a serious danger to someone who has decided to bother him.

Echidna is a rare and unique animal, until recently little studied. It is somewhat reminiscent of a hedgehog or porcupine: it has wool in the form of needles and has the ability to curl into a ball with any signs of danger. In this case, the animal has one unique difference - a marsupial formation on the abdomen, which is used to carry eggs and care for the cub.

General information and origin

Animals from the family of echidnas belong to the class of mammals from the order of one-pass. Their origin still raises many questions. In total, three genera are known, one of which is considered extinct. It lives only in Australia, the island of Tasmania, New Guinea and on the small islands of Indonesia. They are endemic; in other parts of the planet, representatives of the family are not found.

What does it look like

This is a relatively small animal that looks like a porcupine or hedgehog, since the body is covered with a thick layer of wool in the form of needles up to 5-6 cm. The length is 30 cm. The animal has 2 pairs of short but strong and fleshy legs with large claws, which allows them to dig deep holes.

The head is a continuation of the body, there is no neck. The muzzle has a coracoid shape; a small mouth is located on its tip. The animal has no teeth, therefore, to chew food, friction of the tongue against the palate is used. The eyes are small, have not only the eyelids, but also a special blinking membrane.

This is one of the few egg-laying mammals.

The mammal has a tail, although it is difficult to notice, since it is covered with needles. The animal belongs to a single pass, that is, all waste products (urine, sex secretion and feces) come out through one hole - the cloaca.

Where dwells, lifestyle

These mammals spend most of their lives alone.  The exception is the mating season in the winter months. Each individual lives in a certain territory where it hunts and finds food. It is predominantly woody or mountainous, the animal avoids the plains. They do not have permanent housing. Instead, they roam their territory in search of food, resting in random places. The animal digs well and can swim.

The animal has excellent vision, which responds to movement. When a danger arises, it seeks to hide in burrows, dense thickets or crevices in the rocks. If the terrain is open, it digs into the ground, leaving the upper body covered with needles on the surface. When the ground is too hard, the animal curls up into a ball like a hedgehog.

Animals are more active on summer nights

These mammals have almost no natural enemies. Only wild dingo dogs and foxes can eat an adult. They try to attack it from the side of the abdomen, so there are no needles, and deploy a "ball". Young individuals do not yet have strong and powerful needles, so other predators, for example, large monitor lizards, also hunt them.

What echidna eats

The basis of nutrition is ants and termites, the search of which takes most of life.  Having found an anthill, the animal begins to dig it out, licking the ants with a sticky tongue. A long muzzle simplifies the process and also helps to rummage through the ground.

A mammal mixes a lot of sand, dust, grass and dry wood with its food.

Strong paws and large claws allow you to rip the bark from trees or destroy termite mounds. The animal is able to move large stones in excess of its own weight. In rare cases, the animal digs turf or moss, under which there may be larvae or insects.

During feeding, they swallow a large amount of land and small stones. This helps to better digest food. The animal does not drink water at all.

Breeding

Reliable data on the reproduction of these animals were obtained only in 2003 after 12 years of continuous research. The mating season in these egg-laying animals begins in May and ends in September. In the southern hemisphere it is winter. During the mating season, animals gather in groups of 4–5 individuals, including one female and the rest males. To attract males, the female uses a special secret secreted from the cloaca with which she rubs the ground.

Animals in the breeding season go in groups, at the head of which there is always a female. They always hunt and rest together. Other individuals are not allowed in the group.

The males constantly try to care for the female, poking her nose, and somewhere after 3-4 weeks she lets one or more males to her. The female lies on her back, showing her readiness. The males, in turn, begin to circle around her, digging up the earth up to 30 cm deep.

After the trench is ready, the males try to push each other out. As a result, the strongest wins, which fertilizes the female. Mating occurs on the side in a lying position and lasts up to 1 hour.

The duration of gestation depends on the air temperature. In the hot season, pregnancy is shorter and takes 3-4 weeks. At the end of the term, the female lays an egg and places it in a bag on her abdomen. This is a kind of fold, designed specifically for bearing eggs.

Only five zoos in the world managed to get offspring

After 9-10 days, a baby weighs about 0.5 g and no more than 15 mm in size hatch from an egg. The newborn is not yet fully developed and not adapted to life, therefore, with the help of paws it is fixed in the upper part of the mother’s bag, where the mammary glands are located. This area is called the Milky Field. The baby licks the language of mother's milk, which, incidentally, is pink.

Mother carries a puggle (the so-called cub) in a bag up to 2 months. During this time, he gains weight up to 400 g, which is an absolute record among all mammals in growth rates. The mother herself pushes the newborn echidna outward when the thorns begin to grow, causing inconvenience.

Until now, scientists do not know how a female puts an egg in a bag. She has too short paws to do this. Perhaps the animal twists in a special way, and the egg directly falls from the cloaca into the bag.

However, the mother still does not abandon her cub and tears a hole for him somewhere under the roots of the tree. She visits him twice a week to feed with milk. The process continues until six months, until the cub becomes independent.

It is during the period of feeding the cub that the highest mortality rate is observed.  The puggles are still weak and cannot stand up for themselves. As protection, they use special discharge with a pungent and unpleasant odor. In addition, adolescent animals behave extremely quietly without attracting attention.

We highlight a few interesting facts:

• Australian echidna was first described in 1792 by the British zoologist George Shaw. He mistakenly attributed it to anteaters. After 10 years, another British scientist Edward Home discovered a feature in the form of just one pass and created a new squad, One-Pass. By the way, the platypus also applies here.
• This mammal can be confused with the closest relative of the platypus. It differs from the platypus by the presence of needles and the absence of a beak. Lifestyle and habitat are also different. Platypuses are closer to reptiles, although they are mammals.
• This animal has special receptors on its nose that help it pick up the electromagnetic vibrations of its prey or cousins.
• They lay eggs similarly to birds, that is, through the cloaca.
• The average life expectancy in vivo is 15 years. In captivity, animals become centenarians, reaching the age of 40-50 years.
• The female has pink milk. This is due to the high iron content.
• The male's penis has as many as 4 heads.
• Able to lick the tongue up to 100 times per minute.
• Fleas on an animal reach a size of 4 mm.
• With a sharp drop in temperature, they hibernate, which can last up to several months. Subcutaneous fat is used as nutrition at this time.
• The needles are so sharp that even the slightest touch can cause a puncture or cut of a person’s skin.
• Males on their hind legs have spurs containing a poisonous secret. Over the entire observation period, it was not observed that the males at least somehow used it.
• They are kept in zoos around the world, but in captivity animals do not breed.
• The brain is primitive. However, the animal is extremely curious.
• Echidna albino occurs once in ten thousand.

Echidna is an unusual and interesting animal. You can only meet him in Australia and nearby islands. For humans, the animal is not dangerous, and when meeting, it turns into a ball or tends to escape into the thicket. It is not worth picking it up, as this is fraught with damage to the skin due to sharp needles.

Echidna, despite its appearance resembling a mixture of anteater and hedgehog, is actually the closest relative. This is another mammal that can lay eggs.

The echidna family includes 3 genera: real echidna (lat. Tachyglossus), proykhdny (lat. Zaglossus) and the extinct genus Megalibgwilia. Three species were previously distinguished among prochidnas, but only 1 remains now. Among the real echidnas, the Australian (Latin Tachyglossus aculeatus) and Tasmanian (Latin Tachyglossus setosus) are distinguished.

  Australian Echidna (lat.Tachyglossus aculeatus)

Already from the name of the animal we can find out about its habitat. In addition to Australia, Tachyglossus aculeatus is found in Tasmania, New Guinea, as well as on small islands in the Bass Strait. Australian echidna can live in almost any part of the mainland, regardless of landscape. Their home can be both wet forests and arid areas, both mountains and plains. Even in cities, they are not so rare.

  Australian echidna habitat

True, echidna does not tolerate heat and cold because they have no sweat glands. In hot weather, they become lethargic, and at low temperatures hibernate, which can last 4 months. During this period, they spend their subcutaneous stores of fat.

Outwardly, the Australian echidna, however, like the Tasmanian one, resembles a large hedgehog with an elongated muzzle like an anteater. His whole body, except for the abdomen and muzzle, is strewn with many sharp and hard needles. The head is covered with thick hairs.

The length of this animal does not exceed 45 centimeters, and weight - not more than 5 kg. It is difficult to understand where the head ends and the body begins, since the neck is very short, which is an undoubted plus for the echidna. She, like a hedgehog, in case of danger, curls up, exposing huge 5-6-cm needles to the enemy.

  Echidna curled up in a ball

At the same time, she tries to cover the only weak spot on her body - the abdomen. For greater safety, the echidna can literally dig out a small depression in the ground with its clawed front legs in just a minute. There she hides her face and front of the body. When trying to pull it out, the echidna is firmly fixed with its claws and needles on the walls of the pit, and therefore it will take a lot of effort to carry out this action.

An elongated muzzle is a modified “beak” adapted to catch insects living in narrow crevices and minks. In most cases, these are ants, which are easy to pull out with a long sticky tongue, earthworms and other insects. Echidna tongue can produce up to 100 movements per minute. She has no real teeth. Horn cloves located on the back of the tongue help her to grind food.

Echidna love to eat well and eat a lot. To do this, they can go quite long distances without stopping and resting, which can reach 10-15 kilometers per day.

Like a platypus, the "beak" of the echidna is covered with special electroreceptors, which allow to detect the slightest fluctuations in the electric field of another animal. None of the mammals have such a feature.

Powerful echidna claws are a great digging tool. Thanks to them, the animal easily creates a gap in the strong walls of termite mounds and anthills. With the help of elongated claws on the hind legs, the echidna clean their "prickly fur coat".

Their eyesight is weak, but their hearing is excellent. But during night outings for food, they rely more on their sense of smell.

Echidna are lonely by nature. In groups, they are united only with the beginning of the mating season, and then again scatter. They do not guard their territory; they do not build a permanent shelter. Echidnas are free and free to travel wherever they wish. Any secluded place is suitable for them to sleep and rest, be it a hole between the roots of trees, a crevice between stones, a hollow of fallen trees, etc.

They move a little awkwardly. But they swim very well. Echidhins are able to cross small ponds.

The reproduction of vipers is a separate conversation. With the onset of the mating season, a small group consisting of several males begins to form around one female. For a while, they feed together and move from place to place. After 4 weeks of courtship, the fight for the female begins, in which there will be only one winner.

After mating, the female goes to the construction of the brood chamber, where 3-4 weeks after mating, she lays a single egg with a length of 15-17 mm and a weight of 1.5 g. Here the fun begins.

For a long time, scientists could not understand how an egg ends up in a brood bag, since a female cannot roll it there with her mouth or legs. The answer was found only in 2003 after a 12-year study of the behavior and life of echidnas in nature.

It turned out that before laying, the females begin to form a small fold in the region of the intended location of the future brood bag. The female, during the laying of the egg, cleverly folds into a ball. In the area of \u200b\u200bthe fold, a special sticky secret begins to stand out, which attaches the egg to the stomach, and then the fold around it begins to gradually stretch.

  Echidna Hatchling

After 10 days of “hatching”, a tiny calf 15 mm long and weighing 0.5 g appears from the egg. It is blind, goalless, the hind legs are practically undeveloped, but tiny fingers can already be seen on the front ones. Then he slowly moves to the front of the bag, where the pores that secrete milk are located.

With the onset of spike growth (at about 2 months of age), the mother drives the cub out of her bag, builds a separate cell for him and leaves him. True, not at all, every 5-7 days she comes to feed him milk. This lasts up to 5-6 months of age, after which young echidnas begin an independent life and go on their journey under the name “life”.

Echidna are long-livers. In nature, their age can reach 16 years, and when kept in a zoo - 45 years.

These animals are not endangered. Perhaps because there is little use for them, and natural enemies, such as a dingo dog, foxes or monitor lizards, can not cause serious damage to their numbers.

Echidna can be found not only in nature, but also on the Australian 5-cent coin, as well as on postage stamps.

A strange beast lives in Australia - it looks like a porcupine, eats like an anteater, lays eggs like a bird, and carries children in a leather bag like a kangaroo. Such is the echidna, whose name comes from the other Greek ἔχιδνα “snake”.

  Description of the Echidna

In the family of echidnas there are 3 genera, one of which (Megalibgwilia) is considered extinct. There is also the genus Zaglossus, where prochidins are found, as well as the genus Tachyglossus (Echidna), consisting of a single species - the Australian echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). The last was discovered by the world zoologist from Great Britain, George Shaw, who described this egg-laying mammal in 1792.

Appearance

Echidna has modest parameters - with a weight of 2.5–5 kg, it grows to about 30–45 cm. Only the Tasmanian subspecies, whose representatives outgrow half a meter, are larger. A small head smoothly passes into the body, studded with rigid 5-6-centimeter needles consisting of keratin. The needles are hollow and painted yellow (often complemented by black at the tips). Spines are combined with coarse wool of brown or black color.

Animals have poor eyesight, but excellent sense of smell and hearing: ears pick up low-frequency vibrations in the soil emitted by ants and termites. Echidna is smarter than her close relative the platypus, as her brain is more developed and speckled with a large number of convolutions. The echidna has a very funny face with a duck beak (7.5 cm), round dark eyes and ears imperceptible under the wool. The full length of the tongue is 25 cm, and when capturing prey, it flies out by 18 cm.

Important!  The short tail resembles a protrusion in shape. Under the tail is a cesspool - a single hole through which the sexual excretions, urine and feces of the animal exit.

Echidna does not like to flaunt her life, hiding it from strangers. It is known that animals are uncommunicative and absolutely not territorial: they live alone, and when they accidentally collide, they simply diverge in different directions. The animals do not dig holes and arrange personal nests, but for the night / rest they arrange where they have to:

• in placers of stones;
• under the roots;
• in dense thickets;
• in hollows of dumped trees;
• rock crevices;
• burrows left by rabbits and.

It is interesting!  In summer hell, the echidna hides in shelters, as her body is not very adapted to heat due to the absence of sweat glands and extremely low body temperature (only 32 ° C). The vigor of the echidna comes closer to twilight, when coolness is felt around.

But the sluggish animal becomes not only in the heat, but also with the advent of cold days. Light frost and snow make you go into hibernation for 4 months. With a shortage of feed, the echidna can starve for more than a month, spending reserves of its subcutaneous fat.

Types of Echidna

If we talk about the Australian echidna, it should be called five of its subspecies, differing in areas of habitat:

• Tachyglossus aculeatus setosus - Tasmania and several islands of the Bass Strait;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus multiaculeatus - Kangaroo island;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus aculeatus - New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus acanthion - Western Australia and Northern Territory;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus lawesii - New Guinea and part of the forests of northeastern Queensland.

It is interesting!  Australian echidna adorns several series of Australian postage stamps. In addition, the animal is depicted on a coin in denominations of 5 Australian cents.

Life span

Under natural conditions, this oviparous mammal lives no more than 13-17 years, which is regarded as a fairly high rate. Nevertheless, in captivity, the life of the echidna almost tripled - there were precedents when animals in zoos survived to 45 years.

  Habitat, habitat

Today, the range of the Echidna family covers the entire Australian continent, islands in the Bass Strait and New Guinea. For housing, echidna is suitable for any area where there is an abundant food supply, whether it be a rainforest or a bush (more rarely, a desert).

Echidna feels protected under the cover of plants and leaves, therefore, prefers places with dense vegetation. The animal can be found on agricultural land, in urban areas, and even in mountainous areas, where snow sometimes falls.

  Echidna diet

In search of food, the animal does not get tired of stirring up anthills and termite mounds, ripping off bark from collapsed trunks, exploring forest litter and turning stones over. The standard echidna menu includes:

• ants
• termites;
• insects
• small clams;
• worms.

The tiny hole at the tip of the beak opens only 5 mm, but the beak itself has a very important function - it picks up weak electric field signals coming from insects.

The echidna tongue is also remarkable, having a speed of up to 100 movements per minute and covered with a sticky substance, to which ants and termites stick. Circular muscles (contracting, they change the shape of the tongue and direct it forward) and a pair of muscles located under the root of the tongue and lower jaw are responsible for abrupt ejection. Rapid blood flow makes the tongue tougher. The retraction is assigned to 2 longitudinal muscles.

The role of missing teeth is performed by keratin cloves, grinding the prey against the combed palate. The process continues in the stomach, where the food is rubbed with sand and pebbles, which the echidna swallows in advance.

  Natural enemies

Echidna swims well, but doesn’t run very briskly, and is saved from danger by a dull defense. If the soil is soft, the animal digs deeper, curling up into a ball and aiming at the enemy with ruffled thorns.

It is almost impossible to get the echidna out of the pit - resisting, it spreads the needles and rests on its paws. The resistance is significantly weakened in open terrain and solid soil: experienced predators try to open the ball, aiming towards the slightly open belly.

In the list of natural enemies of the echidna are:

• dogs ;
• foxes
• monitor lizards
• feral cats and dogs.

People do not hunt echidna, because it has tasteless meat and fur that is completely useless for furriers.

  Breeding and offspring

The breeding season (depending on the area) occurs in spring, summer or early autumn. At this time, a tart musky aroma emanates from the animals, according to which males find females. The right to choose remains with the female. Within 4 weeks, she becomes the center of the male harem, consisting of 7-10 grooms, relentlessly following her, together resting and having dinner.

It is interesting!  The female, ready for intercourse, lays on the ground, and the applicants circle around her and dig the earth. After a short time, a circular moat (18–25 cm deep) forms around the bride.

Males push like tatami wrestlers, trying to force competitors out of the earthen trench. The fight ends when the only winner remains inside. Mating takes place on its side and takes about an hour.

Bearing lasts 21–28 days. The future mother constructs a hole, usually digging it under an old anthill / termite or under a pile of garden foliage near human housing.

Echidna lays a single egg (13-17 mm in diameter and weighing 1.5 g). After 10 days, a pugle (calf) hatching 15 mm tall and weighing 0.4–0.5 g is hatched from there. The eyes of the newborn are covered with skin, the hind limbs are almost not developed, but the forelimbs are equipped with fingers.

It is the fingers that help the puggle to migrate from the back of the mother's bag to the front, where he is looking for a milky field. Echidna milk is colored pink due to the high concentration of iron.

Newborns grow up quickly, in a couple of months increasing their weight to 0.4 kg, that is, 800-1000 times. After 50–55 days, covered with thorns, they begin to crawl out of the bag, but the mother does not leave her child without care until he turns six months old.

At this time, the cub sits in a shelter and eats food brought by the mother. Milk feeding lasts about 200 days, and already at 6–8 months, the grown echidna leaves the hole in an independent life. Fertility occurs in 2-3 years. Echidna breeds infrequently - once every 2 years, and according to some reports - once every 3–7 years.