Echidnas: Ancient and Adorable - by Tre

       While I was writing my last science blog post, the one about Australian Animals, I realized that I was rambling on and on about echidnas. I was trying to keep to relatively short (at least for me) descriptions of each animal, and echidnas were clearly a flaw in that plan. Seriously, I love these little guys, and when you combine that with my tendency to ramble...well, you get the picture. So I decided to give them their own blog post. For those of you who read about them in the previous blog post, you might end up hearing a few repeats.

   Echidnas are an incredibly interesting animal. They're adorable, like a cross between a hedgehog and an anteater, and they look so funny when they waddle around, snuffling at the dirt to look for their favorite foods: ants and termites. 

   One of the most interesting facts about echidnas is that they are monotremes, which are egg-laying mammals. There are only five species of monotremes still alive today, and four of them are echidnas. The other is the duck-billed platypus, another Australia native. Despite looking like a cross between a hedgehog and an anteater, the echidna is related to neither, with its closest living relative being its fellow monotreme, the platypus.

   There are four main species of echidna: the short-beaked echidna, the western long-beaked echidna, the eastern long-beaked echidna, and the recently rediscovered Sir David's long-beaked echidna. 

Zaglossus Bruijnii: The Western Long-Beaked Echidna

   The western long-beaked echidna is found in areas of New Guinea and Indonesia, specifically in mountain forests and alpine meadows. They average a weight of 36 pounds, making them the heaviest monotreme. Unlike other echidnas, western long-beaked echidnas eat earthworms instead of ants and termites. Its conservation status is critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss.

Zaglossus Bartoni: The Eastern Long-Beaked Echidna

   The eastern long-beaked echidna is found in the mountains of central New Guinea. Like most other echidna species, they eat earthworms. Their average weight ranges from about 10-20 pounds and the females tend to be larger than the males. Their average body length is about 24-39 inches. They have dense black fur and they lack a tail, which is barely different from other echidna species, whose tails are extremely short and stubby. It is classified as a vulnerable species, with an estimated 10,000 individuals remaining in the wild.

Zaglossus Attenboroughi: Sir David's Long-Beaked Echidna

   In the Treasure Room of Naturalis, the natural history museum of the Netherlands, kept under high security, is a room full of taxidermically preserved extinct animals. One of their natural treasures is what looks like a flattened hedgehog. It's actually Zaglossus attenboroughi, Sir David's long-beaked echidna, a species named after David Attenborough. The reason it is flat is that it wasn't stuffed when it was first gathered by Pieter van Royen in 1961. Originally thought to be a juvenile of another echidna species, an x-ray in 1998 proved that it was a fully grown adult of a previously undiscovered echidna species. 

   Since it was the only one ever to be discovered, and no one else was able to find any more, it was assumed to be extinct. However, 62 years after it was originally found, a 2023 expedition to the Cyclops Mountains in New Guinea led by an Oxford team has proven that assumption wrong. Previous expeditions to the Cyclops Mountains had found signs, like "poke holes," that the echidna might have still been waddling around the jungles, but no definite proof. The Oxford team spent four weeks of dangerous searching. While they were searching, the team had to deal with two earthquakes, deadly poisonous snakes, and a great number of leeches (the Cyclops Mountains not only have leeches all over the jungle floor, but the leeches also climb trees, hang off of them, and drop onto you as you pass by) to reach the high elevations where the echidnas are thought to live. When they reached the largely unexplored higher elevations it became clear that there was much more to find up there than just echidnas. The team discovered several dozen new insect species, a species of tree-dwelling shrimp, and a previously undiscovered cave system. The team managed to catch a few clips of the thought-to-be-extinct echidna, but they were incredibly close to missing it. They found the clips on the last SD card of the last game camera on the last day of their expedition.

   We now know that Sir David's long-beaked echidna is about the size of a short-beaked echidna (making it the smallest of the long-beaked echidnas), and has a longer and straighter beak than other long-beaked echidnas. Otherwise, it closely resembles the western long-beaked echidna. Sir David's long-beaked echidna is classified as a critically endangered species, mostly due to human predation by local tribes with hunting dogs. Local tribes still hunt them, using the dogs to track them to their daytime burrows in the ground or hollow logs, but the November 2023 Oxford team's sighting was the first proven sighting since 1961.

Tachyglossus Aculeatus: The Short-Beaked Echidna

   The short-beaked echidna is found throughout Australia and some locations in eastern New Guinea. They weigh about 4-15 pounds and dine on ants and termites, using their 7-inch tongue to scoop insects up into their toothless mouths. Their bodies are covered in blackish-brown and golden spines but their long (it's only short compared to other echidnas), pointy beak (snout) is bare. Short-beaked echidnas don't really have many natural predators in Australia, but dingos will occasionally hunt them. They are well protected in Australia and their conservation status is "least concern" with a stable population. 

   The echidnas that we saw at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary were short-beaked. One of them was brought to the sanctuary (which is also a rescue center) after being attacked by a dog. His front right leg was severely bitten and needed to be amputated, but he has made a full recovery and is now waddling around his enclosure as happy as can be. Like many other Australian animals, echidnas often fall victim to both cars and dogs, especially around dusk and dawn, the hours when our schedules overlap the most.

Some interesting echidna facts:

• Echidnas are the world's oldest mammal and are thought to have evolved twenty to sixty million years ago.
• Echidnas are monotremes—egg-laying mammals.
• A recent study shows that monotremes evolved in Antarctica, where they used their electroreceptors to sense prey under the snow.
• Echidnas have 400-2,000 electroreceptors on their beaks, while platypuses have 40,000.
• Echidnas' spines are actually modified hairs.
• Despite not being marsupials, echidnas keep their young in pouches for about three months after they hatch.
• Baby echidnas are called puglets.
• Echidnas have a very large brain, and the largest prefrontal cortex for their body size of any mammal.
• Echidnas have the lowest body temperature of any mammal—32 degrees Celsius or about 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Echidnas have a very slow metabolism and consume the least energy of any mammal.
• Echidnas hibernate in the winter. They can slow their body so much that their heartbeat can drop to only four beats per minute and they only have to breathe once every few minutes.
• When hibernating, the echidna's body temperature drops down to nearly the same temperature as the ground: 46-50 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Echidnas have no sweat glands and cannot pant, so they have to dig into the soil to cool down.
• Echidna's ears can hear very low-frequency sounds, which is ideal for hearing ants and termites underground.
• Echidnas are featured on Australia's equivalent of a nickel.

   And I know what you are all thinking after you see them waddling around—can you have one as a pet? No, you cannot. I know, I was disappointed too. Despite being classified as "least concern", Australian echidnas are protected by lots of laws to prevent people from interfering with their natural way of life. 

   Echidnas are a unique group of animals, and each species has its own fun characteristics and traits. It's so much fun to see them waddling around, snuffling at the dirt looking for ants, oblivious to the humans around them. Some species of echidnas are critically endangered. We need to work to help these amazing creatures survive for generations to come so that future visitors to Australia can see these strange creatures waddling around as they have for millions of years.