Want to know something awesome? A baby echidna is called a 'puggle'. How good is that? Puggle! The echidna, or 'spiny anteater' is a monotreme, which is a mammal that lays eggs (unlike marsupials which give birth to live young). The only other animal in the monotreme family is the platypus.Twenty two days after mating, the female echidna lays a single, soft-shelled egg, which is deposited directly into her pouch. Here the puggle (puggle!) feeds from a milk-patch, as the echidna has no nipples. After about fifty days, the puggle starts to develop spikes, and so is moved into a burrow to continue its' development-- after all, who wants a prickly puggle in their pouch?
2 comments:
Very infomative! I've never seen one in real life...seeing the one come out of the bushes must have been great excitement!
It definately was, Chris. I wish I was able to see more animals in the wild..Where I live now, possums are the closest I'll ever get. Maybe one day we'll move to the country...:)
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