[Blog Post] Australian Animal Facts - The Echidna

• The Echidna is a mammal but a unique one at that, like the platypus it is the only other egg-laying mammal on the planet.
• The echidna lay eggs that have a soft shell and the female carries them in her pouch for two weeks when they hatch and only produce one egg at a time. Once hatched the young echidna remains in the pouch for approximately 50 weeks by which time the baby would have grown spikes. The baby is then transferred by the mother to a nursery burrow where she returns every few days to feed the baby until it’s about 7 months old.
• Echidna young are called Puggles.
• The echidna has a very long tongue, approx 18cm in length but it has no teeth. The tongue is quite sticky and as its diet consists of ants and termites this works quite well.
• When faced with attack, the echidna will either burrow to safety or curl up in a ball showing only the spikes covering its body.

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