The echidna is a solitary and secretive member of the local fauna. They will generally only get together to mate and can sometimes form ‘echidna love trains’, when a female is followed by two or more males.
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Recently a lucky Katherine East resident was surprised by three of these spiky critters in the shed. Chances are they got lost while taking care of echidna business with their love train resulting in them ending up among the recycling.
Echidnas are special as they are one of only two egg laying mammals known as monotremes. The platypus is the other. Monotremes are found only in Australia and New Guinea. A female echidna will lay a single, 13-16mm long, soft, leathery egg straight into her pouch where it hatches into a baby echidna or puggle about 10 days later. The puggle stays in the pouch for eight to 12 weeks, suckling milk from special milk secreting patches on mum’s tummy, until its developing spikes make it an uncomfortable burden.
The echidna’s spikes are one of two layers of hair. The sparse, coarse undercoat helps to keep it warm while the spiky outer coat is up to five centimetres long and made of the same material as your fingernails. When threatened by a predator such as a dog, a goanna or an eagle the echidna curls into a ball presenting an almost impenetrable palisade of sharp points.
Echidnas are common around Katherine but tend to hunt in the cool of the night, hiding from the heat of the day in caves or hollow logs. You will rarely see them. Echidnas use their sharp sense of smell to track down tasty termites or a crunchy ant or two and break termite mounds and logs apart with their strong front feet. If you keep an eye out around termite mounds, you may be able to spot the tell-tale signs of their digging or even a seven-centimetre long cylindrical echidna poo or two.
If you’d like to host an echidna visitor there are a couple of things you can do.
Make sure you have lots of ground cover in your yard. Like all native animals, echidnas love to hide and fossick in old hollow logs and rocks or under shrubs and grasses. A well-mulched garden will also encourage invertebrates such as ants and termites, further encouraging a visit from a spiky guest or two. Lastly, a garden free from roaming pets at night will make sure that the coast is clear for your cryptic little mate.