Wildlife Blog

Featured Animal: Short-beaked Echidna

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Meet our featured animal, the short-beaked echidna!

Short-beaked echidna walking

Here are five fun facts about echidnas:

  • Baby echidnas are called puggles! [Check out this adorable puggle from the Taronga Western Plains Zoo.]
  • Echidnas are monotremes, or mammals that lay eggs.
  • Their long spines are made of keratin, the same material that makes up our fingernails.
  • The echidna’s pointy snout can sense electrical signals from insect bodies.
  • Echidnas do not have teeth, but they do have horny pads in their mouths and on the back of their tongues which grind the prey.

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