Echidna-icity

2010-06-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

This was a tattoo idea I had, having a hole in one's body with a small fossorial animal peaking out.

2010-01-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

I met an Australian on holiday at the bar in my neighborhood. He didn't believe me when I told him the echidna and the platypus lay eggs. I felt scandalized. If I'd had a baby echidna in my hand I would have shaken that puggle at him so hard.

2009-12-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

Rip the flesh and spines off an echidna, and this is what it looks like underneath. I missed a few bones in the neck, and the skull could be longer, but you get the idea.

2009-11-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

The upright echidna may not look very amused, but echidnas have a very dry sense of humor.
Presumably.

I could watch this video forever.

2009-11-05T09:54:00.000-08:00

2009-08-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

There is some regional variance in the amount of spikes some short beaked echidnas have, but this never amounts to a different species. At the most, some might be classified as different sub-species
Not much to say here. I was bored at work. That first one has quite the oversized schnoz.

2009-06-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

Echidnas will often blow spit bubbles through their nostrils.

Don't believe me? Odd, I don't see why you wouldn't. Take that chip off your shoulder and maybe pick more important battles.
See?

How else to get the dirt out?

I Was Into Echidnas Before They Were Cool

2009-06-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Non existent readers of this blog may have noticed an article just published recently in the New York Times. In fact, if you're reading this I imagine it's not outside the realm of possibility that you stumbled upon this blog after performing a google search for echidna pictures or related information after you interest was piqued by the article in question. Am I right or am I (not) right?

If you haven't read the article, it's worth a look.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/science/09angi.html

Finally an article from a mainstream publication that addresses the echidna on its own merits and not as a throwaway reference when talking about the platypus! In fact the platypus is not even mentioned until the fourth paragraph, a move which I can imagine just has the platypus' PR people in a tizzy and fearful they might lose the title of Most Well Known Monotreme.
Ok fine, so maybe that's not going to happen anytime soon, but I imagine this might be the biggest breakthrough in echidna awareness since Knuckles the Echidna first appeared in a certain video game franchise I never played much of. Of course I doubt an article in the Times will be bigger than Knuckles the Echidna, but the phenomenon that is this article will reach a totally new demographic, an older one, and, more importantly, convey real facts instead of ridiculous fictions about super fast cartoon shoes or even more absurd ideas like echidnas having teeth. Also, I've noticed from browsing various gaming blogs that apparently any games from that franchise previously mentioned have sucked for years now.

The long beaked echidna in particular gets very little love, other than the brief mention from time to time in articles about extremely endangered animals.
The only minor quibble I could have with the NY Times article is that it sometimes can't figure out if it is going to only be about the long beaked echidna or both echidna species. I can forgive this though; with Zaglossus Bartoni being so rare it seems most of the information we have about it is what we infer it has in common with Tachyglossus Aculeatus, or short beaked echidna, and Natalie Angier had an article to write.
In fact I can forgive most anything relating to the echidna. Notice how kind I was to the pack of lies that is Knuckles the Echidna? Apparently what some others can't forgive the echidna for however are its toes, which are nearly impossible to fit athletic footwear over.

Echidna Echidna. Yes I can write it out some more.

...echidna

Whoah -WHOAH! Facts?!

2008-09-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

What is a baby echidna called? A puggle.

I resent the man who let his beagle get loose in the trailer park and schtup a pug, who then thought he was so clever when he decided he'd created a new fancy breed of dog instead of a cute mutt. Did he (or she) even do any research to see if the word puggle was already taken? I doubt it. Relatives of the echidna have been around since the dinosaurs and a sheep a sized echidna, Zaglossus hacketti, lived during the Pleistocene Epoch more than 20,000 years ago, so I don't think there's any argument which came first. Even if there were no given names back then I'd say it's a reasonable assumption puggle referred to a newborn echidna first.

Puggles get evicted from their mother's pouch about the time their spines start coming in (for obvious reasons).

Echidnas are primarily solitary animals, so after dumping the puggle in a hole the mother will leave it for days at a time and return every so often to feed it's young from its milk patch. Monotremes don't have nipples, they just kind of exude milk from a spot in their pouch.

I don't feel like detailing the entire life cycle of echidnas though, so it's on to physiology.

Echidna spines don't come out as easily as porcupines', nor can they be "shot"; they're pretty firmly attached. In fact echidnas can use their spines as an aid in climbing.

A layer of muscle covers most of the echidna that allow it to manipulate its spines. For instance, if you were to hold an echidna it might flatten the spines on its back and raise the ones around its head.

The hind feet of echidnas face behind them instead of pointing their toes forward. This unique trait is what allows the echidna to be the only mammal that can dig straight down, which it will do if threatened in open territory without suitable coverage. They're very good at digging. Echidnas have been known to dig through concrete to escape imprisonment.

Which reminds me of another fact.

Echidnas have the largest prefrontal cortex of any known animal, consisting of 50% of their brain (humans' are 30%). Accoding to wikipedia, "The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals." The prefrontal cortex is also where scientists speculate personality and imagination lie in humans.
Precisely how intelligent echidnas are is unknown; they're not the most communicative of animals.
They don't seem to relish captivity. As mentioned, they've dug through concrete; to get out of a steel pen they've been documented to to have the wherewithal to stack up to four feeding dishes on top of one another to provide a suitable ladder for escape. They might not like it but echidnas have lived in captivity for up to 30 years.

In the wild they can presumably live longer, up to 50 years. One story has some old guy claiming he'd seen the same echidna around since he was a boy, for over 45 years. When asked how he could be sure it was the same one he answered, "It only had three feet."

As previously stated, echidnas are pretty solitary, but not territorial. If one echidna comes across another it'll just ignore it and keep going on it's way. They don't really keep a home base anywhere but will wander whereever there's food. They are Australias most widespread species living in dry desert areas or snowy forests.

They're actually well suited for the cold since they can't sweat or pant, so overheating can be a bit of a problem.

And a final bit of information. Now any normal person might be asking himself around this time "Do echidnas dream?" How very astute of you. It really is the obvious direction for the discerning individual's mind to wander. The anser is Yes, but only at certain temperatures. It was once thought the echidna was the only mammal that didn't experience REM sleep, but later studies showed that they do, but only between 18 and 28 degrees Celsius with 25 degrees seeming to be most preferable.

I think that's enough obscure animal information for now, though I didn't even remark on the only time you're likely to see more than one echidna together: an echidna "love train."

ADDENDUM:
Notice there's no mention of the fact that echidnas lay eggs and are the only other surviving monotreme along with the platypus. YOU SHOULD ALREADY KNOW THAT.
Of the two remaining monotremes it is my assertion that the echidna is far superior, even if its PR team isn't. The echindna has no need to be all showy and attention grabbing; it knows where it stands.

2008-08-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering...

2008-06-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile...

2008-06-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

2008-06-09T21:41:00.000-07:00