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Land Animals Australia
Echidna
The echidna belongs to a special group of mammals called monotremes. There are only three monotremes, two of them are echidnas. The short-beaked echidna is found in Australia and the long beaked echidna is found in New Guinea. The other monotreme is the platypus.
An echidna is covered with hair and with sharp spines on its back and sides. The spines protect the animal from enemies.
Echidnas grow to be about 40 centimetres long. They weigh about 8 kilograms.
The echidna has a snout and a long sticky tongue. It uses its tongue to lick up ants and termites. The echidna doesn't have teeth, but it has hard pads inside its mouth to grind up the ants and termites before swallowing them.
The echidna has long, sharp claws on its feet. It uses them to dig open ant and termite nests. It also digs rapidly into the ground to escape from enemies.
After mating, a female echidna digs a burrow, curls up her body, and lays one egg directly into her pouch. The egg hatches in about 10 days. Inside the pouch, the baby echidna drinks milk from its mother's body. When its spines start to grow, the baby leaves the pouch. The female will feed her baby until it's about 6 months old.
In the wild, an echidna can live for up to 16 years.
Related weblinks -
• here you will find out lots about the echidna - http://www.australianwildlife.com.au/features/echidna.htm