Short-beaked Echidna
Photo: C
& D Frith
Australia's Wet Tropics
Rainforest Life
Short-beaked Echidna: Tachyglossus aculeatus
- It is a monotreme, crepuscular (active early morning and early evening).
- The dorsal surface of the body and the tail is covered with spines.
- Fur is usually present between the spines.
- Have a long tubular snout.
Habitat:
- The echidna has no particular habitat requirements
- Shelter is found beneath thick bushes in hollow logs, under debris or in burrows.
Diet:
- Forages around at dawn and dusk, and feeds on ants and termites.
- The echidna is a toothless animal, it invades an ant or termite nest with its forepaws or snout and extends its long tongue into the chambers. Insects stick to the stick saliva of the tongue and are drawn into the mouth. The insects are chewed between a horny pad at the back of the tongue and a similar pad on the palate.
Social Behaviour:
- It is a solitary animal.
Viewing Opportunities:
- A difficult animal to predict as it rarely keeps the same route twice
- Best viewed when crossing roadways early morning and early evening.
Additional Information:
- The main difference between the two types of Echidna in Australia is that the Short-beaked Echidna eats ants and other colonial insects, and the Long-beaked Echidna forages in forest litter for earthworms and larger solitary insects. They both have a long and sticky tongue for feeding.
- An echidna’s head and body length is between 30 and 45cm. Its weight is 2-7kg.
- Other common names for the Echidna include the Spiny Anteater and Porcupine.
- It avoids temperature extremes in arid regions by sheltering in caves or crevices and restricting activity to during the night. Activity patterns depend on air temperature in more temperate climates – it may be most active in the middle of the day in winter.
- Similar to a male platypus, the male echidna has a spur on the ankle of its hind-leg. However, it lacks the functional venom gland of the platypus.
- Mating season is between July and August. Approximately 2 weeks after copulation, a single soft-shelled egg is laid, and hatches about 10 days later. The young remains in the pouch for a further 3 months, suckling on milk exuded from the pores of the paired mammary glands.
- The young echidna has a covering of short spines by the time it leaves the pouch. The relationship between the mother and baby over the next 7 or 8 months is unknown, but when they are about one year old and weigh 1-2kg they tend to first be seen.
- Echidnas can curl into a ball of radiating spines if they are suddenly disturbed. Or, if on soil, they can dig beneath the surface while remaining horizontal to disappear like a sinking ship. It can also wedge itself securely in a rock crevice or hollow log by extending its spines and limbs.
- Dingoes occasionally eat echidnas, but they have no significant predators. Young echidnas may be eaten by large goannas.
ECHIDNAS
Echidnas and platypuses are the only egg-laying mammals -monotremes-in the world.
There are two species of echidnas, the larger long-beaked echidna* found only in the highlands of New Guinea. and the short-beaked echidna, which lives in Australia and the New Guinean lowlands. Like the platypus, they are considered to have an ancient lineage and to have been around for over 100 million years. Their peculiar egg-laying method of reproduction is thought to demonstrate the descent of mammals from reptiles.
The short-beaked echidna is found in all habitats in Australia, from desert to snowy mountains to rainforest. Its abundant sharp spines, which mean the echidna has few predators, are consolidated hair. Softer fur grows between the spines and in colder areas may be long enough to almost hide them.
The echidna gets out and about to feed mainly at dawn and dusk. Top of the menu are termites and ants. It breaks into the nests of colonial insects, demolishing even the hard mud walls of a termite mound with its strong front feet. It pokes its long nose into cracks and extrudes an enormously long sticky tongue to which the helpless insects are glued like flies on flypaper. Not only does the echidna have an excellent
*Different forms of the long-beaked echidna were once found all over Australia and New Guinea until late Pleistocene times (about 11,000 years ago).
sense of smell, but research has shown that, along with the platypus, it also possesses unique sensory capabilities. These include specialised nerve endings at the tip of its snout which are sensitive to tiny electric currents. These enable it to detect the minute electric signals produced by moving prey.
Another feature the male platypus and the male echidna have in common is a spur on the ankle of the hindlegs. Whereas the spur of the platypus male contains a poison gland and can inflict some damage, the male echidna's spur is not venomous.
The female echidna produces one
marble-sized, soft-shelled egg at a time, about two weeks after mating. It is
probably laid directly into a shallow depression on the mother's underside, a
type of pouch. It hatches in about 10 days and for the next 50 days the baby is
carried around, feeding on milk which exudes from pores on the mother's two
mammary glands. At the age of three months, the baby has a covering of short
spines and is deposited in an underground burrow for the next seven months. At
one year old it makes its first foray into the world.
Script: Courtesy of Environmental Protection Agency
Additional Information:
'Short-beaked Echidna', ‘Spiny Anteater’, Tachyglossus aculeatus
This is an unmistakable animal; about the size of a small cat, it is covered with brown spines, has a long beak-like nose and tiny, squinty eyes. The Echidna walks with a distinctive rolling gait. If disturbed or scared, it buries itself half into the ground, or wedges itself under a log or rock, so only the spines are visible.
The echidna is probably Australia's most widespread native mammal. It can be found anywhere on the continent in pretty much any terrestrial habitat, from desert dunes, through rainforest, to snowy highlands. However, there are several different subspecies (Strahan and Cayley 1995) and the animal shows some variation in it's different environments; for example, those in Tasmania may grow hair that actually sticks out further than the spines. Although it is generally considered a widespread and common species, it is not regularly or predictably observed, most likely due to it's crepuscular and nocturnal activity especially, in the warmer parts of the continent. In the tropical rainforest it is only occasionally seen, and can sometimes be seen wandering around roads out of the forest at night.
Its wide distribution may be a reflection of the wide distribution of its prey. The Echidna feeds on invertebrates such as the ants and termites that are so ubiquitous in Australia (Strahan 1998). Like the bill of the Platypus, the beak of the Echidna has receptors that are sensitive to the electrical signals from its prey (Cronin and Westmacott 2000). It uses its sharp digging claws to slash open nests, then uses it's long tongue to slurp up the prey. Understandably, quite a bit of dirt is also ingested (Strahan 1998); but this may assist in breaking down the insect prey. The genus name Tachyglossus means 'swift tongue' (Strahan and Cayley 1995), and that swift tongue may slither in and out 100 times a minute (Strahan 1998).
Echidnas are generally solitary animals
(Strahan 1998). In the breeding season, however, receptive females may waddle
along followed by a trail of up to ten males (Cronin and Westmacott 2000). Once
mated, females develop a temporary pouch in which they lay a single egg (Egerton
1997).