Animal Fact Sheets
Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)

The Short-beaked Echidna is a unique Australian.

The Echidna and the Platypus are the world’s only egg laying mammals. They are called Monotremes. With sharp spines covering the back of its short body and a long snout, the echidna is also unique in its appearance. It uses its long snout to search for food, smell for predators and to find other echidnas.

The echidna has strong, short limbs which are excellent for scratching and digging. The front feet have five long flat claws which it uses to dig, burrow and break open logs and termite mounds. The back feet point backwards and help to push soil away when the animal is burrowing. The echidna also uses two longer claws on its back feet for grooming.

Adult echidnas vary in size and weight but are usually between 30-45cm in length with the males weighing about 6kg and females about 4.5kg.

Breeding and Lifecycle
The breeding season of the echidna is between July and August. During this time the female develops a fold of skin and muscle, which forms a temporary pouch used to protect and carry her egg. One soft egg is laid about two weeks after the echidna has mated. The egg stays in the pouch and hatches after about ten days. The young echidna is only about 1.5cm in length, about the same size as a grape!

Echidnas do not have teats, instead milk oozes out of the skin from the mammary glands and the young suckle the fur on the mother’s belly. The young echidna is carried in its mother’s pouch for up to three months. When the infant leaves the pouch it is still covered with hair which develops into sharp spines. The young continues to suckle from the mother for another seven months and after about one year leaves to live on its own. Echidnas live for about 30-40 years but have been known to live for as long as 50 years in captivity.

Habitat and Distribution
The echidna is found throughout Australia in forests, rocky areas, snowy mountains and sandy plains, although there are only small numbers found in the dry arid parts of Australia. They seek shelter under thick bushes, in hollow logs or amongst rocks. For most of the year echidnas are solitary animals. Each animal’s territory is large, however, it will often overlap with other echidnas. During the breeding season they use their good sense of smell to find one another.

Diet
The echidna uses its sense of smell and touch to find food which is caught with its 18cm long sticky tongue. The echidna mainly eats termites and ants and can eat about 2kg of termites in one meal. It also eats worms and beetles. Echidnas do not have teeth so they grind their food between hard plates on their tongue and the top of their mouth. They will often swallow food that is still alive.

Threats to Survival
The main predators of the echidna are dingoes, eagles and dogs. When threatened the echidna will curl into a ball with its snout and legs tucked in beneath and its sharp spines sticking out, providing great protection. If the ground is soft the echidna will dig and burrow itself in the ground or wedge itself under a rock.

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