What I took to be a porcupine at first turned out to be an echidna. A very strange looking critter that seems to live by eating ants. I observed that it must be an endangered species since a) it was out in the daytime, which on an Australian summer day in the area can reach +40C (something that caused the expiration recently of a co-workers cat); and, 2) while it was obviously trying to hustle across the road, it was also evidently not all that fast, and definitely not speedy enough to avoid a moving vehicle.Run, little echidna! A fast as an echidna can!
Btw, it did make it to the other side without incident. After all, I would hardly call an animal seen, er, napping on the side of the road noteworthy. Knowaddamean?
- Farmer Ted
1 comment:
Did you know a baby Echidna is called a "puggle"?
Also its mother has a semi pouch or flap of skin to hold the baby in then leaves it in the nest/hole. It's milk does not come from a nipple but a gland that excrets the milk as baby pushes on it and then feeds......
Born without spikes/quills, these grow later on.
If you are interested in more details on aussie wildlife visit our website and look under wildlife and our conservation work.
It's http://www.yelvertonbrook.com.au
Regards Joy
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