Australian echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). Habitat, behavioral features and nutrition of the echidna Lifestyle and behavior of the echidna in nature

The taxonomy of echidnas is pretty confusing, in some reference books it is written that there are 5 species of them. However, now scientists believe that there are only two echidnas - prochidna (Zaglossus bruijni) , living in New Guinea, and echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), common in Australia and Tasmania. It is about the Australian echidna that our today's story will go.

Despite the fact that the echidna is very widespread on the "fifth continent", it is one of the most mysterious Australian animals. Echidna leads such a secretive way of life that many features of the biology of this animal are not known to researchers until now.

For the first time, European scientists learned about the echidna in 1792, when a member of the Royal Zoological Society in London, George Shaw (the same one who described the platypus a few years later) compiled a description of this animal, mistakenly classifying it as an anteater. The fact is that this amazing nosy creature was caught on an anthill. The scientist did not have any other information about the biology of the animal. Ten years later, Shaw's compatriot anatomist Edward Home discovered one common feature in echidna and platypus - both of these animals have only one opening at the back leading to the cloaca. And already the intestines, and the ureters, and the genital tract open into it. Based on this feature, a detachment of monotremes was singled out. (Monotremata).

But besides the presence of a cloaca, echidnas and platypuses have one more fundamental difference from all other mammals - these animals lay eggs. Scientists discovered such an unusual method of reproduction only in 1884, when Wilhelm Haacke, director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, noticed a well-developed pouch in the female of this animal, and in it a small rounded egg.

Echidna and platypus have a number of common features, for example, in the structure of chromosomes. In monotremes, they are represented by two types - large (macrosomes), similar to the chromosomes of other mammals, and small (microsomes), similar to reptile chromosomes and not found at all in other animals.

But outwardly, the echidna and the platypus are completely different. Echidna is an animal with a body weight of 2 to 7 kg and a length of about 50 cm. Its body is covered with coarse hair and prickly needles, the length of which reaches 6-8 cm. The neck of the echidna is short, and the head ends with a long cylindrical "beak". Just like the platypus, the "beak" of the echidna is a very sensitive formation. Its skin contains both mechanoreceptor cells and special electroreceptors. They perceive weak changes in the electromagnetic field that occur during the movement of small animals - echidna prey. In no other mammals, except for the echidna and the platypus, such electroreceptors have yet been found.

The mouth opening is located in the echidna at the end of the beak. It is quite tiny, but on the other hand, a long, up to 25 cm, sticky tongue is placed in the mouth of the animal, with the help of which the echidna successfully catches its prey.

These animals live, as we have already said, very secretly. So much so that, for example, the features of reproduction of echidnas remained unknown until very recently. Only 12 years ago, after painstaking work in the laboratory and more than ten thousand hours of observing prickly animals in nature, scientists managed to penetrate the secrets of their family life. It turned out that during the courtship period, which lasts for echidnas all winter - from mid-May to mid-September - the animals stay in groups of up to seven individuals each, feed and rest together. Moving from place to place, the animals follow each other in single file, forming something like a caravan. A female always stands at the head of the caravan, the largest of the males follows her, and the smallest and, as a rule, the youngest animal completes the chain. Outside of the mating season, echidnas are solitary, and it has long been a mystery how males find females during the breeding season. It turned out that chemical signals play the main role in this process - during the mating season, the animals emit a very strong musky smell.

Echidna is a unique animal in its kind. It belongs to a small order of monotremes. This group also includes such amazing creatures as platypuses. The Australian echidna is an extremely primitive creature, which, although it feeds its offspring with milk, still retains the ability to lay eggs. It is believed that animals like this were an intermediate link between reptiles and mammals.

Echidna is a unique animal

This animal was first described by the famous English zoologist George Shaw in 1792. Like many other relic creatures, echidnas live in a closed area. Monotremes have long since died out on other continents, but have survived in:

1. Australia.
2. Tasmania.
3. New Guinea.
4. Bass Strait Islands.

The Australian continent is very far from others, so the animals living on it have gone their own evolutionary path. The modern prochidna is perhaps the most famous surviving member of the genus. Echidna inhabits almost the entire territory of this continent. Human economic activity has led to a significant decrease in the number of these animals.

Echidna - ant eater (video)

Physiological characteristics

Initially, researchers considered the echidna to be a relative of the anteater, but this is not true. The study of the anatomical features of these animals made it possible to identify their cloaca - an opening that hides the genital tract, ureter and intestines. This feature makes echidna related to birds and reptiles.

This animal looks quite unusual. Her entire back is covered with stiff needles formed from pressed wool. The length of the spines reaches 6 cm. On the head, neck, abdomen and paws, the body of the creature is covered with coarse hair. And the Australian echidna is quite modest in size. The length of the creation usually does not exceed 30-45 cm. The weight can vary from 2.5 to 5 kg. The auricles are almost invisible. The Australian echidna has an elongated muzzle, the size of which is approximately 7.5 cm. These creatures have no teeth.

This animal looks quite unusual. Her entire back is covered with stiff needles formed from pressed wool.

Despite the fact that the echidna is a warm-blooded animal, its body temperature is unstable. Animals have to resort to certain tricks to keep it within 30-32°C.

The creature does not have sweat glands, which are present in many species of mammals, so the problem of cooling is quite acute for him. In hot weather, the Australian echidna switches to a nocturnal lifestyle. When the temperature drops, it becomes sluggish. With a strong cold snap, the animal hibernates, which can last more than 6 months.

The Australian echidna has very long claws. Thanks to them, the animal digs perfectly and can break the walls of termite mounds in order to provide itself with food. Echidnas have very sticky saliva and a long tongue. They help the creature get ants and termites that the animal feeds on. Outwardly, these creatures do resemble giant anteaters, but these species are not related.

The natural habitat of echidnas allows them to find the required amount of food. In rare cases, this creature can dilute its diet with small vertebrates. The animal has no teeth, so it grinds larger prey by moving its tongue across the palate. In addition, the echidna swallows a small amount of sand during feeding. It promotes better grinding of food in the stomach. Echidna is an extremely clumsy creature, but it swims well and can swim across large bodies of water.

Relatively recently, it was found that these animals have good eyesight. In the presence of any threat, the echidna burrows into the ground or rolls up into a prickly ball.

The natural enemies of the animal include foxes and dingoes. These predators are able to cope even with an adult.

Echidna on a walk (video)

Gallery: echidna animal (25 photos)

Features of breeding echidna

The process of reproduction of these animals is of the greatest interest. Echidna is a marsupial animal that reproduces in a specific way. Throughout the year, this creature leads a solitary lifestyle. Each individual, regardless of gender, protects a certain territory in which there are termite mounds and other sources of food. Despite the fact that echidnas are excellent diggers, they do not have permanent shelters.

The breeding season lasts from early May to September. At this time, the animals are looking for a partner. Females emit a characteristic musky odor that attracts echidnas from all surrounding areas.

A small group of 7-10 individuals is formed. The female usually leads the way, followed by potential mates. The group feeds together and stops to rest. In the process of movement, animals follow strictly one after another.

After the female is completely ready for breeding, she lies on her side and waits. Her potential partners continue to walk around her, pushing the ground onto her side. After a short period, a trench can be dug around the female, the size of which reaches about 25-30 cm. After such a peculiar struggle, only the strongest male remains. He mates with a partner lying on his side.

Pregnancy in these animals lasts about 21-28 days. At this time, the female digs a brood hole, in which it should be dry and warm. Here she produces only 1 egg, which has a leathery shell. In diameter, it does not exceed 13-17 mm. Its weight is about 1.5 g.

The animal presses this ball to the stomach, trying not to move once again during this period. After about 7-10 days, a baby hatches from the egg. In this he is helped by a special horny bump present on the nose. The baby is poorly developed and may look too fragile. The eyes are still covered with skin. Only the front legs are well developed, while the hind legs are almost not formed.

The echidna cub, deftly clinging to the hard wool, moves into the bag. There he is safe. Echidnas do not have mammary glands and nipples that would help feed their offspring. These creatures have special primitive glands through which milk is released.

Up to 150 such glands can be located in a separate area, each of which has a modified hair. Squeezing these hairs with his mouth, the cub feeds.

The baby consumes this milk while remaining in the pouch. There it grows and develops. In just 2 months, a cub can increase its weight by 100 times. At this time, its weight reaches about 400 g.

• Class: Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758 = Mammals
• Infraclass: Prototheria = cloacal, primitive, oviparous
• Order Monotremata Bo naparte, 1838 = Monotreme oviparous
• Family: Tachyglossidae Gill, 1872 = Echidna

Family: Tachyglossidae Gill, 1872 = Echidna

Read about the Australian echidna: ; ; ;

We have already talked more than once about the amazing animal of Australia - the platypus, a representative of the first animals, or egg-laying mammals. However, not only the platypus belongs to the subclass of the first animals, the detachment of monotremes, but also another, no less interesting, but much less studied animal - the echidna. The taxonomy of echidnas is pretty confusing, in some reference books it is written that there are 5 species of them. However, now scientists believe that there are only two echidnas - the pro-echidna (Zaglossus bruijni), which lives in New Guinea, and the echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), common in Australia and Tasmania. It is about the Australian echidna that our today's story will go.

Genus: Tachyglossus Illiger, 1811 = Echidnas

Despite the fact that the echidna is very widespread on the "fifth continent", it is one of the most mysterious Australian animals. Echidna leads such a secretive way of life that many features of the biology of this animal are not known to researchers until now.

For the first time, European scientists learned about the echidna in 1792, when a member of the Royal Zoological Society in London, George Shaw (the same one who described the platypus a few years later) compiled a description of this animal, mistakenly classifying it as an anteater. The fact is that this amazing nosy creature was caught on an anthill. The scientist did not have any other information about the biology of the animal. Ten years later, Shaw's compatriot anatomist Edward Home discovered one common feature in echidna and platypus - both of these animals have only one opening at the back leading to the cloaca. And already the intestines, and the ureters, and the genital tract open into it. Based on this feature, a detachment of monotremes (Monotremata) was singled out.

But besides the presence of a cloaca, echidnas and platypuses have one more fundamental difference from all other mammals - these animals lay eggs. Scientists discovered such an unusual method of reproduction only in 1884, when Wilhelm Haacke, director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, noticed a well-developed pouch in the female of this animal, and in it a small rounded egg.

Echidna and platypus have a number of common features, for example, in the structure of chromosomes. In monotremes, they are represented by two types - large (macrosomes), similar to the chromosomes of other mammals, and small (microsomes), similar to reptile chromosomes and not found at all in other animals.

But outwardly, the echidna and the platypus are completely different. Echidna is an animal with a body weight of 2 to 7 kg and a length of about 50 cm. Its body is covered with coarse hair and prickly needles, the length of which reaches 6-8 cm. The neck of the echidna is short, and the head ends with a long cylindrical "beak". Just like the platypus, the "beak" of the echidna is a very sensitive formation. Its skin contains both mechanoreceptor cells and special electroreceptors. They perceive weak changes in the electromagnetic field that occur during the movement of small animals - echidna prey. In no other mammals, except for the echidna and the platypus, such electroreceptors have yet been found.

The mouth opening is located in the echidna at the end of the beak. It is quite tiny, but on the other hand, a long, up to 25 cm, sticky tongue is placed in the mouth of the animal, with the help of which the echidna successfully catches its prey.

These animals live, as we have already said, very secretly. So much so that, for example, the features of reproduction of echidnas remained unknown until very recently. Only 12 years ago, after painstaking work in the laboratory and more than ten thousand hours of observing prickly animals in nature, scientists managed to penetrate the secrets of their family life. It turned out that during the courtship period, which lasts for echidnas all winter - from mid-May to mid-September - the animals stay in groups of up to seven individuals each, feed and rest together. Moving from place to place, the animals follow each other in single file, forming something like a caravan. A female always stands at the head of the caravan, the largest of the males follows her, and the smallest and, as a rule, the youngest animal completes the chain. Outside of the mating season, echidnas are solitary, and it has long been a mystery how males find females during the breeding season. It turned out that chemical signals play the main role in this process - during the mating season, the animals emit a very strong musky smell.

After about a month of living together, the echidnas that make up the group decide to move on to a more serious relationship. Increasingly, one or another male, and sometimes several, immediately begin to touch the tail of the female with their stigmas and carefully sniff her body. If the female is still not ready for mating, she curls up into a tight prickly ball, and this position cools the ardor of her cavaliers for a while. The female echidna, on the contrary, relaxes and freezes, and then the males begin to lead a kind of round dance around her, while throwing clods of earth aside. After some time, a real trench 18-25 cm deep forms around the female - for a long time people puzzled over the origin of these strange circles on Australian soil!

But back to the wedding ceremony of echidnas. At some point, the largest of the males turns his head to the one following him and tries to push him out of the trench. Pushing competitions continue until one winning male remains in the trench. Once finally alone with the female, he continues to dig the ground, trying to make the "marriage bed" more comfortable, and at the same time excites his chosen one, stroking her with his paws. Mating lasts about an hour and consists in the fact that the male presses the opening of his cloaca to the cloaca of the female, frozen in love ecstasy.

After 21-28 days after this, the female, having retired to a special brood hole, lays a single egg. It is as small as a platypus egg and weighs only about 1.5 g - like a pea! No one has ever seen an echidna move an egg from the cloaca to the bag on the stomach - its mouth is too small for this, and its powerful clawed paws are too clumsy. Perhaps the female bends her body so deftly that the egg itself rolls into the bag.

A brood burrow is a warm, dry chamber often dug under an anthill, a termite mound, or even a pile of garden debris next to human structures and busy roads. The female spends most of her time in this hole, but sometimes she comes out to feed - after all, the egg is always with her, securely hidden in her bag.

Tiny, 13-15 mm in size and weighing only 0.4-0.5 g, the cub is born after 10 days. When hatching, he has to break the dense three-layer shell of the egg - for this, a special horny bump on the nose serves, an analogue of the egg tooth in birds and reptiles. But the echidna does not have real teeth at any age - unlike a small platypus that has recently hatched from an egg. The eyes of the hatched echidna cub are rudimentary and hidden under the skin, and the hind legs are practically not developed. But the front paws already have well-defined fingers and even transparent claws. It is with the help of the forelimbs that a small echidna moves from the back of the bag to the front in about 4 hours, to where the area called the milky field, or areola, is located. In this area, 100-150 separate pores of the mammary glands open. Each pore is equipped with a special hair bag, which differs in structure from the bag of ordinary hair. When the cub squeezes these hairs with its mouth, food enters its stomach - although it was previously believed that it simply licks the secreted milk.

Young echidnas grow extremely fast, in just two months increasing their weight by 800-1000 times, reaching a mass of 400 g! To provide the cub with the necessary amount of milk, the female is forced to devote most of her time to the search for food.

Echidnas feed mainly on ants and termites, which they get by tearing the ground and termite mounds with their powerful claws. These animals do not disdain other insects and earthworms. And although the echidna has no teeth, but on the back of its tongue there are horny teeth that rub against the comb-like palate and grind the prey. With the help of the tongue, the echidna swallows not only food, but also small pebbles and particles of soil, which, falling into the stomach, serve as millstones for the final grinding of prey - just as it happens in birds.

The baby echidna stays in the mother's pouch for about 50 days - by this age it simply ceases to fit there and, in addition, it develops spines. After that, the mother leaves him in a hole and comes to feed every 5-10 days - but the amount of milk that the cub receives for one such feeding is about 20% of its body weight! This continues for almost 5 months. In total, the feeding process takes almost 200 days. Therefore, echidna can only breed once a year. But the low rate of reproduction in these animals is compensated by a long lifespan. The well-known longevity record for an echidna in the wild is 16 years, and at the Philadelphia Zoo, one echidna lived for 49 years - almost half a century!

N.Yu. Feoktistova, Association of Pedagogical Publications "First of September"

Literature: V.E. Sokolov. Systematics of mammals. part 1. - M.: Higher school, 1973. "In the world of science". 1991, No. 4. Australia Nature, 1997-1998, No. 11.

Varieties and habitat of echidna, appearance and physiological characteristics, description, nutrition, reproduction, tips for keeping at home.

The content of the article:

Echidna belongs to the oviparous mammals from the order Monotremes. This is an absolutely unique creature, which, together with the platypus, zoologists have identified as an independent zoological order, called Monotremata - Bird Beasts. This name well explains the amazing features of the anatomical structure and physiology of these two animals, which lay eggs, like birds, but feed their newborns with milk, like mammals.

Varieties and habitat of echidna

For the first time, European science learned about the existence of echidna from the report of a member of the Royal Zoological Society in London, George Shaw, read in 1792. But Shaw, who compiled the first description of this animal, was initially mistaken in classifying it as an anteater. In the future, having learned a lot of new and unusual things about this wonderful creature, zoologists corrected the mistake of the discoverer.

Currently, the Echidna family is divided into three genera:

• real echidnas (Tachyglossus);
• prochidna (Zaglossus);
• now extinct genus (Megalibgwilia).

The only representative of true echidnas (Tachyglossus) currently existing in nature is the Australian echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), which has five subspecies:

• Tachyglossus aculeatus multiaculeatus, found on Kangaroo Island;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus setosus, Tasmanian echidna, habitat - the island of Tasmania and the Furno group of islands of the Bass Strait;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus acanthion, distributed in the Northern Territory of Australia and Western Australia;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus, inhabits the Australian states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland;
• Tachyglossus aculeatus lawesii is found in the islands of New Guinea and in the rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia.

Appearance and physiological features of the echidna

Echidna combines the external features of at least two mammals at once - a porcupine and an anteater, which makes its appearance very extraordinary and easily recognizable.

The standard length of the Australian echidna is 30-45 centimeters with a weight of 2.5 to 5 kg. The Tasmanian subspecies of this mammal is noticeably larger - up to 53 centimeters.

The body of the animal has a somewhat flattened shape, with a small head, short thick strong legs and a small curly tail.

The muzzle of the bird animal is conically elongated and gradually turns into a kind of cylindrical "beak" up to 75 centimeters long. The shape of the "beak" can be either straight or somewhat curved (depending on the subspecies).

The "beak" is the most important organ, designed both to detect prey and to absorb it. In addition to a very sensitive nose and mouth opening, the “beak” contains mechanoreceptors and electroreceptors - special cells of the body that can detect the slightest fluctuations in the electric field caused by even the slightest movement of insects. No other mammal known to modern science has electroreceptor cells (with the exception of the platypus).

The structural features of the mouth-beak are such that the echidna cannot fully, like other animals, open its mouth to swallow prey. Its mouth opening does not exceed 5 mm. Therefore, she is only able, like an anteater, to “shoot” her long, thin and sticky tongue in the direction of food, drawing into her mouth everything that has stuck to it and is able to pass in size into such a small hole. The beak-mouth of the "spiny anteater", as this bird animal is sometimes called, is completely toothless. Instead of teeth for grinding solid food, small sharp horn needles are used, dotting the root of the tongue and the palate of the mouth.

The auricles of the echidna are under the thick hair of the head and are almost invisible visually even on the naked body of the cub. At the same time, the hearing of the bird beast is magnificent. Especially in the low frequency range emitted by the underground movement of insects.

The eyes of a mammal are small, having, in addition to the eyelids, nictitating membranes. Despite the small size of the eyes, she has excellent vision (until recently it was considered the opposite), which, combined with sharp hearing and an excellent sense of smell, helps her to detect danger in a timely manner and in most cases avoid direct collision with predators.

Leading an uncommunicative way of life, the echidna almost does not make voice sounds. Only at moments of extreme excitement of a mammal can a soft grunt be heard.

The body of the animal is covered with brown-brown hair, the sides and back are protected by long and sharp quills, like those of a porcupine. The length of the needles reaches 5-6 centimeters.

Powerful strong five-fingered paws (three-toed are found in the prochidna) are armed with strong wide claws and are well adapted for digging the earth, moving large stones and destroying termite mounds.

Adult males have sharp and hollow horny spurs on the heels of the hind limbs. Zoologists who discovered the echidna mistook these spurs for special venomous spikes (perhaps hence the overly venomous name of the animal), designed to protect against attacking predators. Modern research has shown that these spurs do not contain poison and are used by the bird animal exclusively for combing out its prickly skin.

On the belly of the female, on the eve of the mating season, a fold of skin (brood bag) is formed in which she bears the egg laid by her, and then the hatched cub, feeding it with milk, like all marsupial mammals of Australia.

The uniqueness of the anatomy of a mammal also lies in the presence of the so-called cloaca, into which both the intestinal and genitourinary tracts are simultaneously excreted. For this reason, the echidna was assigned to the zoological order Monotremes. The penis of the male is also unique, large, having three branched heads at once - probably to ensure a more reliable result when mating during the mating season.

Lifestyle and behavior of echidna in nature

The habits and lifestyle of the Australian echidna are not homogeneous and depend not only on the individual nuances of the behavior of each of the subspecies of the animal, but also on the climate, natural landscape and the specifics of a particular habitat.

The "spiny anteater" can be found in the most diverse areas of the Australian mainland and adjacent islands - in hot deserts and in dry bush, in warm, humid equatorial forests and in the shrubby undergrowth of the foothills. The echidna is equally at home near water bodies, on farmlands, and even in urban suburbs. If only there was enough food, and there were fewer predatory animals.

In the foothills of the island of Tasmania and the Australian Alps, where the temperature drops significantly below zero for several months a year, and the ground is covered with a blanket of snow for a long time, the beast hibernates, having previously dug a deep hole-lair. The presence of a considerable amount of subcutaneous fat accumulated over the summer allows you to easily survive this cold period of starvation.

In snowless and warm regions, this prickly beast is awake all year round.

In areas with a temperate continental climate, the echidna leads an active lifestyle, regardless of the time of day. But in the hot semi-deserts, it goes hunting only at night, when the heat subsides. The body of this creature does not tolerate increased heat indicators very well due to the complete anatomical absence of sweat glands and low own body temperature (30–32 ° C).
"Prickly anteater" is a solitary animal, capable of communicating with its own kind only during the mating period. In everyday life, although these animals adhere to a certain habitat, they do not wage internecine wars among themselves, calmly allowing neighbors to sometimes violate the boundaries of marked areas.

Due to the peculiarities of the anatomy of the body and large curved claws, the mammal moves somewhat awkwardly and relatively slowly. And although this bird animal cannot be attributed to waterfowl or water-loving animals, the animal swims quite decently. If necessary, he can easily swim across a wide river.

Despite the fact that the Australian echidna has a vast habitat on the Australian continent, many of its habits have not yet been fully studied - this animal leads a too secretive lifestyle.

Echidna food

The structural features of the oral cavity, in general, determined the diet of the echidna. Since the size of potential prey is limited by the size of the mouth opening, small insects form the basis of nutrition. First of all, these are termites and ants, which the prickly beast gets to by digging up anthills and destroying termite mounds. In addition, the "spiny anteater" feeds on slugs, snails, worms and insect larvae.

An excellent sense of smell, as well as electroreceptors of the “beak”, allow you to find prey deep underground, under stones and tree stumps. The strong clawed paws put into action and the agile all-penetrating tongue of the animal successfully complete the job. When hunting for prey, the tongue of the bird animal is able to “shoot out” at the target with a machine gun firing frequency of about 100 times per minute, penetrating to a depth of up to 18 centimeters.

In exceptional cases, the echidna can do without food for a month, due to its own reserves of subcutaneous fat.

Echidna breeding

The mating season for this wonderful beast begins in May and ends in September. To attract a partner, or rather, partners (several males can follow one female at once, forming competition), the female emits a sharp musky smell and leaves odorous messages to the “grooms” with the help of a cloaca.

Male courtship of the "bride" can last for several weeks, eventually ending with the mating of the winning male with the female, which occurs in the supine position. In time, the mating lasts about an hour, after which the couple scatters forever.

The duration of pregnancy is from 21 to 28 days. It ends with the laying by the female of one or two very small eggs (weight about 1.5 grams), beige-cream in color, with a leathery shell.

Having barely laid eggs somewhere in a secluded, dry and warm place - a brood hole, the echidna immediately moves them to her bag. How she does this, in fact, without having a normal mouth size and perfect paws, zoologists cannot yet convincingly say. After the eggs are placed in the bag, the female carefully bears them for another 10 days until the offspring appears.

Life and nursing of echidna cubs

The hatched cub, weighing only about 0.5 grams, independently moves to the front of the bag to a skin area called the milky field (in this zone there are about 150 pores of the mammary glands), where it begins to feed on echidna milk that is pink in color (due to excess iron content). . In the future, he remains in the mother's pouch for almost two months, quickly gaining weight. After two months, the "baby" already weighs 400-450 grams. By this time, the baby develops its own spines, and the mother releases it from the bag into a previously prepared shelter hole.

Over the next four months, the grown echidna is in this shelter, and the mother comes to feed her no more than once every 5-10 days. The independent life of a newly minted young representative begins at the age of eight months, and puberty occurs at 2-3 years.

Mating of the "spiny anteater" occurs quite rarely, according to available observations - no more than once every 3-7 years. Life expectancy in nature is 15–16 years.

Natural enemies of echidna and ways of defense

On the Australian continent and in Tasmania, the main enemies of echidnas are: dingoes, marsupial Tasmanian devils, monitor lizards, foxes and feral dogs and cats.

A good sense of smell, sharp eyesight and excellent hearing help this prickly and rather harmless creature to avoid danger. Having found the enemy, the echidna always tries to leave unnoticed. If this fails, then it is taken at the same time to dig a hole with all four paws, instantly plunging deep into the ground and leaving a back covered with needles for the enemy to attack. This is her favorite defense technique.

If for some reason it is not possible to dig a hole, the beast, like a hedgehog, curls up into a prickly ball. True, this method of salvation is not so perfect. Experienced Australian predators have long learned to overcome echidnas curled up in a ball, rolling them into the water or rolling them on the ground for a long time and contriving to grab the belly that is not protected by needles (when the animal's muscle responsible for twisting into a ball gets tired and the prickly ball opens slightly).

Often, a spiny mammal becomes a victim of aboriginal hunters who hunt it solely for the sake of fat, which is considered a kind of delicacy by local tribes.

It may seem that such an unusual and exotic animal is ill-suited for the role of a pet. Actually it is not. There are many examples of successful home maintenance of this thorn bearer.

Of course, keeping such a creature in a limited area of ​​\u200b\u200ba city apartment or freely walking around the house is not worth it. Furniture and the interior of the premises can easily suffer from this - the habit of turning over stones and digging up anthills in search of food from this savage is ineradicable.

Therefore, the optimal conditions for keeping an echidna are a spacious aviary house in front of the house or in the household yard, which reliably protects the beast from cold, heat and too annoying visitors. Do not forget - the "prickly anteater" prefers loneliness. Which, however, does not exclude his walks around the yard. The animal is distinguished by a complaisant and peaceful character, gets along well with households and other pets. Never behaves aggressively. The only thing that can suffer from his claws is your favorite flower garden or garden, which he will definitely check for something tasty.

As for the diet. At home, the bird animal is quite capable of doing without its beloved ants and termites. Echidna is happy to eat necessarily crushed hard-boiled eggs, fruits, bread, and minced meat. He especially likes milk and raw chicken eggs. Do not forget about the container with drinking water.

Efforts on the part of the owner to care for the pet's prickly skin are not required. The animal is able to do all the necessary manipulations on its own.

In captivity, this animal practically does not breed. Only five zoos in the world managed to get echidna offspring, but none of the born pets survived to adulthood.

More about echidna, see this video:

Echidna- a unique creation of nature. It's really true! The origin of these unique animals has been studied very superficially and many questions about their life are controversial and are still considered open.

• in appearance, the echidna looks like a hedgehog or, it also has almost the entire body covered with needles;
• echidna lays eggs to continue its kind, which is more typical for birds;
• she bears her offspring in a special bag, just as kangaroos do;
• but she eats in the same way as.
• with all this, echidna cubs feed on milk and belong to the class of mammals.

Therefore, they often talk about echidna as a "bird animal". Look at echidna photo, and much will become clear at a glance. What is this special creation, who is this echidna?

Echidna and platypus belong to the same order, which are known as monotremes (single pass). In nature, there are 2 varieties of echidna:

• spiny (Tasmanian, Australian)
• woolly (New Guinea)

The surface of the body is covered with needles, the length of which is about 6 centimeters. The color of the needles varies from white to dark brown, so the color of the animal is uneven.

In addition to needles, the echidna has brown hair, it is quite rough and tough. Particularly dense coat and quite long in the parotid region. The size of the echidna refers to small animals, about 40 centimeters.

Pictured is a woolly echidna

The head is small in size and almost immediately merges with the body. The muzzle is long and thin, and it ends with a small mouth - a tube, which is often called a beak. The echidna has a long and sticky tongue, but it has no teeth at all. In general, the beak helps the animal to navigate in space, as vision is very poor.

Echidna moves on four legs, they are small in size, but very strong, muscular. She has five fingers on each paw, which end in strong claws.

This unique miracle of nature, like it, can curl up and turn into a prickly ball. If there is some source of danger or threat to life nearby, then the echidna burrows into the loose soil with half of the body and exposes its needles as protection so that the enemy cannot get close to it.

Often you have to escape from dangers and flee, then strong paws come to the rescue, which provide quick movement to a safe shelter. In addition to being a good runner, the echidna is also good at swimming.

The nature and lifestyle of the echidna

Echidna lives in Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. The life of the echidna was first described by George Shaw in 1792, and it was from that time that the observation of this animal began. However, echidnas are quite secretive and do not like interference in their lives, which greatly complicates study and research.

Not in vain word"Sneaky" means treacherous. So and animal echidna cunningly and cautiously, does not allow intrusion into his life. Australian echidnas prefer to lead a nocturnal lifestyle.

They live mainly in forests or areas with dense vegetation, where the animal feels protected under the cover of foliage and plants. Echidna can hide in thickets, tree roots, crevices in rocks, small caves, or in burrows that dig and.

In such shelters, the animal spends the hottest hours of the day, with the onset of the evening, when the coolness is already well felt, echidnas begin to lead an active life.

However, with the onset of cold weather, the life of the animal seems to slow down and for some time they can go into hibernation, although in general the echidna does not belong to the class of animals sleeping in winter. This behavior of the echidna is due to the lack of sweat glands, so it does not adapt well to different temperatures.

With a significant change in temperature, the animal becomes lethargic and inactive, sometimes it completely slows down the process of vital activity. The supply of subcutaneous fat provides the necessary nutrition to the body for a long time, sometimes it can last about 4 months.

In the photo, the echidna is in a defensive pose

Reproduction and lifespan

The breeding season, the so-called mating season, falls just in the Australian winter, which lasts from May to September. At other times, echidnas live alone, but with the onset of winter they gather in small groups, which usually consist of one female and several males (usually there are up to 6 males in one group).

For about a month, they have a so-called dating period, when the animals feed and live together in the same territory. After that, the males proceed to the stage of courting the female. This is usually shown by the animals sniffing each other and poking their noses into the tail of the only female member of their group.

When the female is ready to mate, the males surround her and begin a kind of wedding ritual, which consists in circling to dig a trench about 25 centimeters around the female.

Pictured is an echidna with a tiny egg

When everything is ready, the fights for the title of the most worthy begin, the males push each other out of the trench. The only one who will defeat everyone and will mate with the female.

About 3-4 weeks after mating has occurred, the female is ready to lay an egg. The echidna always lays only one egg. The echidna's pouch appears only at this time, and then disappears again.

The egg is about the size of a pea and fits in the mother's pouch. Exactly how this process occurs is still debated by scientists. After about 8-12 days, a cub is born, but for the next 50 days from the moment of birth, it will still be in the bag.

Pictured is a baby echidna

The echidna mother then finds a safe place where she leaves her cub and visits him about once a week to feed him. Thus another 5 months pass. Then the time comes when echidna children ready for independent adult life and no longer needs maternal care and care.

Echidna can reproduce no more than once every two years, or even less often, but the nature of life expectancy is approximately 13-17 years. This is considered to be quite high. However, there were cases when echidnas in the zoo lived up to 45 years.

Echidna food

The diet of echidnas includes termites, small worms, and sometimes malus. To get food, the echidna digs up an anthill or termite mound, rips off the bark of trees where insects hide, moves small stones under which worms can usually be found, or simply combs the forest floor of leaves, moss and small branches with its nose.

As soon as the prey is found, a long tongue comes into play, to which the insect or sticks. The echidna does not have teeth to grind its prey, but its digestive system is designed so that it has special keratin teeth that rub against the palate.

Thus, the process of "chewing" food takes place. In addition, grains of sand, small pebbles and earth get into the body of the echidna, which also help grind food in the stomach of the animal.