Native Echidna

About a week ago when I blipped a koala, I said my goal was to blip each one of our iconic Aussie native animals from the koala through to the kangaroo, echidna and platypus. Plus our Aussie native birds. Today I had a stroke of luck when we were driving home from an open garden in the countryside, about 50 kilometres south of Adelaide.

We were travelling along a very quiet unsealed (dirt road) towards the town of Strathalbyn when this echidna crossed the road in front of us. I jumped out of the car, camera ready, as I happened to have the camera on the floor of the car, right next to my feet! No, I am normally not this well prepared for emergency photos! The echidna was moving quickly and was starting to climb the bank on the side of the road. I had to move fast as well, or else he would disappear before I got my first shot. Luckily the bank slowed him down and he became nervous at my presence. To try and make himself invisible, he tried to burrow into the bank, but it was not possible, the soil was too hard and dry. You can see the small depression he made in front of his snout. Check him out in LARGE.

I managed to get a better angle and started clicking away, finally getting a nice shot of his body, head and snout, while he had one eye on me. Then he turned his back and moved further up the bank after deciding I was not a major threat.

Echidnas, sometimes known as spiny anteaters, belong to the family Tachyglossidae, being one of the egg-laying mammals. There are four in the species, which, together with the platypus, are the only surviving members of that order, and are the only such mammals that lay eggs.

Their diet consists largely of ants and termites, and they live in the bushy areas of Australia, and are named after a monster in ancient Greek mythology. This is only the second time I have ever seen an echidna in the wild, the other time being on Kangaroo Island, 60 miles away.

Echidnas are small, solitary mammals covered with coarse hair and spines. Superficially, they resemble the anteaters of South America and other spiny mammals such as hedgehogs and porcupines. They have snouts which have the functions of both mouth and nose. Their snouts are elongated and slender, as you can see above.

The echidna's main defence is rolling up into a ball, or burrowing down below the surface of the soil, showing only its spines along its back, and holding on below the surface with its claws, thus resisting being pulled out of the ground.

I would rate today as a rare and very lucky sighting of this shy and elusive animal.