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Scientists had to arrange heated debates at one time in order to come to a common opinion as to what kind and class to classify such an unusual animal as echidna. The whole difficulty was that its appearance resembles a porcupine, because the whole body is covered with needles, and this animal belongs to the family of rodents. But she lays her eggs to continue the genus, and this is mainly characteristic of bird representatives. The offspring is in the bag. So this is a marsupial, similar to an possum or kangaroo. In addition, the cubs feed on breast milk, and this is a privilege of the mammalian class, it obtains food like an anteater. By the way, because of this quality it has another name - a prickly anteater. This is probably why there is Echidna in mythology - a woman with a beautiful face and disgusting character, but the body of the snake is called the stoglava.
Nevertheless, scientists have determined the place of echidna in the classification of animals, having entered into the family of mammals, a unit of one-pass.
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The prickly anteater belongs to small animals, since it reaches a length of no more than 40 cm.
The head of the echidna is quite small. It blends smoothly with the body. A long and elongated muzzle ends with a very small mouth, which is a kind of tube, similar to a beak.
Distinctive features are a rather long tongue and a complete absence of teeth. But they are not required, because the tongue is sticky, and only it helps the animal to feed. Licking from any surface of invertebrates sticking to a long tongue, the echidna can feed itself.
The limbs of the animal are quite short, but highly developed, muscular. There are 5 fingers on them. They end with sharp, flat claws. Such claws help echidna to dig the earth to get to the termite and to destroy its walls. Termites are tasty food for the echidna.
The echidna has a short, almost invisible tail. It is covered with a thick layer of fur and thorns and merges with the body.
The entire body of the animal from side to back is covered with hollow, but very stiff needles. Their length is about 6 cm, and the color can be different and uneven - from white and yellow to brown, most often with black endings. Such a coating is modified hair, in which keratin plays the main role.
But the coat of this animal is also available. It is coarse and very stiff, and in the area of the ears the thickest and longest. Its color can be either brown or black. The fur only partially covers the needles. Those individuals that live in colder areas where snow falls have longer hair than needles.
Habitat
Echidhins are the property of New Guinea. Mostly live in its southeastern part. These animals also live in Australia.
First of all, habitats - forests and places with very densely populated vegetation. Only hiding in the foliage or in the roots of trees, the echidna can feel safe. But also the animal hides in small caves and rocky crevices, burrows, which other small animals had previously dug.
Lifestyle
During the day, when it is hot and there are many enemies around, the echidna prefers to be in her shelter, but when night comes, the life-giving coolness comes, the animal goes hunting.
Echidna is not difficult to adapt to different conditions.If she lives in the desert, then in cool weather she is active during the day
If danger suddenly appeared, a small brave animal will be able to stand up for itself. His behavior in this case is very unusual: he manages to quickly bury himself in the ground, if, of course. the soil is loose. Hiding almost to half, he belligerently demonstrates his sharp needles. It can also curl up, again, aiming the needles at the enemy if the terrain is hard. However, in this case, the enemies of the animal, and this is primarily a fox, a dingo dog, a pig, attack the unprotected part of the belly.
But, if the most dangerous threat to life appears, then it’s not shameful to run away either. Here the animal comes to the rescue of him, albeit short, but powerful legs. They help quickly rush to shelter and hide. Echidna is a good swimmer, and can be saved from danger by water, overcoming significant distances.
Individuals live separately, without a permanent shelter, and constantly protect their limited territory. However, neighboring farms can overlap each other, and very heated debates on this issue do not arise.
When colds come, the animal may fall into a little hibernation, although it was decided not to classify the echidna into the class of those animals that hibernate during the cold season. So nature takes care of the animal, because it does not have sweat glands, and therefore adapt to changing temperatures is therefore not easy. It is necessary to significantly change the temperature regime, as all activity disappears, the animal at this time is characterized by lethargy and lethargy. Going into hibernation, the accumulated subcutaneous fat helps the animal survive for about 4 months.
What does it eat?
The nutrition of the animal is not very diverse. These are mainly termites and ants, small worms and mollusks. To get to termites and ants, you first have to work hard. For this, body parts are used. With its strong paws, the animal digs up an ant hill or termite mound full of tasty insects, as well as removes bark from a tree or moves stones on the ground. All actions are aimed at those areas where tasty insects hide. With the help of a nose, the animal explores the soil under the leaves and fallen broken branches.
Once the goal is found, it's time to use a sticky tongue. Gathering food on it, again with the help of the tongue, the prey is pressed against the sky and crushed. So the lack of teeth does not cause any difficulties.
Grinding occurs in the digestive tract, which also drops all kinds of pebbles, sticks, grains of sand. They also take part in food fragmentation.
Important periods
The echidna mating season begins in winter. This Australian period lasts from May to September. Before that, living separately, the males unite, creating a group of about 6 individuals, with them there is one female. For a month they live together, feed together. Then comes a kind of romantic period. It is significant that the males look after the lady. This is manifested in the following behavior: cavaliers after sniffing each other begin to poke their noses into the tail area of the female.
When it is time for mating, the males surround the expectant mother, and the wedding dance begins, during which the grooms manage to make a rather large 25-cm trench near the female. It is needed in order to determine the winner. After a few minutes, the battle begins, during which everyone tries to push the enemy out of the line. The winner will be worthy to continue the clan.
Then, when the needles appear, for the baby, the echidna finds a very secluded place and leaves it. Most often this is a place in the land where the child is not in danger. He visits only once every 4–5 days to feed with milk, to teach many wisdom, which in the future will help to find food and save lives. And so it goes on for 5-6 months. When this period ends, the grown stronger child no longer needs care. Now he is quite ready for independence and will be able to protect himself.
A female, but not everyone, can give offspring twice a year.
The lifespan of this animal is up to 17 years. But there are cases when they lived in zoos with good care much longer.
Video: Australian Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)
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