Echidna
Echidna
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| COMMON NAME: | Short-beaked Echidna |
| LATIN NAME: | Tachyglossus aculeatus |
| MEANING: | Pachyglossia - "fast-tongue"; aculeatus - "spiny" |
| FOOD: | Termites, ants and other invertebrates gathered using its long tongue. |
| HABITAT: | River banks in most habitats from rainforests to deserts. |
| LOCALITY: | NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA |
| LENGTH: | Body: 300-450 mm |
| WEIGHT: | 2-7 kg |
| BEHAVIOUR: |
Active mainly at dawn and dusk in summer and during the day in winter, they sleep under bushes or leaf litter in hollow logs or abandoned burrows. Usually solitary, they have overlapping home ranges some 800 m across. They have a slow rolling gait freezing or curling up if threatened, eventually seeking shelter or burying themselves. They climb into logs and stumps and dig into termite mounds and ant nests, locating insects by smell and by detecting electrical signals via receptors in the snout. |
| DEVELOPMENT: |
They mate in July and August. Females develop a temporary pouch and lay a single egg transferred into the pouch. The egg has a leathery skin, is about 15 mm long and hatches after 10 days. Newborn are blind with very short spines and feed on milk secreted from pores in the pouch area. They are left at the hole or burrow for 3 months when the mother forages, becoming independent at 8 months. |
| DESCRIPTION: |
An egg-laying mammal, the Short-beaked Echidna has strong sharp spines covering the back and sides, a long tubular snout with a long sticky tongue, small eyes and a short tail. The spines moult annually and are creamy-coloured with a dark tip, and may be obscured in the Tasmanian form by dark brown to sandy fur. The limbs are short and powerful with 5 toes and strong spatulate claws. Males have a small non-venomous spur on the hindleg. |
