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Short-Beaked Echidna
Paignton Zoo is home to one of the only echidnas in the UK... the legendary Bruce! He is one of our oldest animals at 49 years old.
You can visit Bruce in our Small Mammal House, where he lives with our potoroos Dumble and Delilah. This is the UK’s only mixed species exhibit of its kind.
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Monotremata
Family:
Tachyglossidae
About the short-beaked echidna
Echidnas are native to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. They occupy a range of habitats, such as forests, woodlands, and meadows. Since they can’t sweat or pant, the echidna often seeks shade and is not very active during the hottest parts of the day.
The protective spines all over an echidna are made of keratin – the same substance that human nails and hair are made from.
Echidnas and platypus are the only monotremes, meaning mammals that lay eggs. After a gestation period of about 23 days, a female echidna will lay one egg in her pouch for incubation. After 10 days, this egg will hatch a baby echidna, called a puggle, which is no more than 2cm long. The puggle develops in its mother’s pouch for the next 3 months until it’s old enough to be cared for in a burrow.
In the wild, echidnas eat ants, worms, and termites, which they collect using their long, sticky tongue.
Conservation
Due to their widespread range, there are no known major threats to the short-beaked echidna at this time. There are numerous education programmes in Australia to encourage greater care and respect for native species such as the echidna.
Extensive efforts are being made to learn more about the conditions required to care for these unusual mammals in zoological collections outside of Australia, including here at Paignton Zoo.