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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows a recently hatched infant echidna, which is called a puggle, in its mother’s pouch. The tiny and hairless puggle is shown pulling itself up through the pouch to find its mother’s milk. The clip cuts to a shot of the mother, in which her pouch is being held open. The mother is then released into grassland. This clip includes commentary from biologist Peggy Rismiller, who runs the Pelican Lagoon and Wildlife Research Centre on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia, where this footage was shot.

Educational value points

• The term 'echidna’ usually refers to the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) as shown in this clip and found across Australia. There is also a long-beaked echidna, native to New Guinea. An adult echidna is about the size and weight of a newborn human infant, with males weighing up to 6 kg and females about 4.5 kg. They are between 35 cm and 53 cm long. The back of an echidna is protected by spines, its underbelly is covered by hair and it has a distinctive snout.

• The clip shows an infant echidna, a puggle, newly hatched from an egg. The echidna and the platypus are the world’s only living monotremes, a type of egg-laying mammal that dates back to prehistoric times. Like birds and some reptiles, monotremes produce their young from eggs that are hatched outside their body but like mammals, they suckle their young. The female echidna lays a single soft-shelled egg directly into her pouch, and this hatches 10 days later. The puggle has an egg tooth for breaking out of the shell.

• As demonstrated by the clip an echidna puggle is kept in its mother’s pouch. During the breeding season, a female echidna develops a simple backward-facing pouch, which also has mammary glands that secrete milk for the infant. The puggle is carried around in its mother’s pouch for about 3 months, after which it is left in a burrow underground, with the mother returning once every 4 days to nurse it. At 7 months, the mother brings it to the mouth of the burrow and it is left to fend for itself.

• The newly hatched puggle is usually 1.45 cm long and is not fully formed. Its skin is translucent and its eyes and backbone are undeveloped. The puggle’s hind legs are embryonic lumps, however its forepaws are capable of grasping and this allows it to crawl to the milk in the mother’s pouch, where it suckles. Within 2 weeks of hatching, the puggle gains 100 times its birth weight, growing from one-third of a gram to about 30 g. Within about a month it has a fine coat of fur, and its spines begin to grow.

• As depicted in the clip, an echidna’s spines are light yellow with black tips and can be up to 6 cm long. There is some black fur between the spines. The spines have a long root that is embedded in a special muscle layer, allowing the animal to move the spines individually or in small groups. If attacked or disturbed, an echidna will curl into a spiky ball, with its snout tucked beneath itself, and use its long claws to dig into the ground.

• The echidna is a very shy solitary creature and this can make it difficult to study. It can disappear in a matter of minutes by burrowing into the soil. Because of its elusiveness, it is almost impossible to estimate Australia’s echidna population, and consequently it has been placed on the endangered species list.

• Echidnas are found in a range of habitats across Australia, including rainforests, arid bushland, swamps, deserts and the seashore. They are often found among rocks, in hollow logs and in holes among tree roots.

• This footage was shot at the remote Pelican Lagoon and Wildlife Research Centre on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia. The Centre is a non-profit educational trust run by Rismiller and fellow biologist Mike McKelvey, and specialises in low-impact field research.

This clip starts approximately 19 minutes into the documentary.

A recently hatched infant echidna pulls itself up in its mother’s pouch to find its mother’s milk.
Peggy Rismiller, biologist This tiny little puggle, that doesn’t even have a teat to attach to in the mother’s pouch, actually has to hold on to the hairs upside, backwards, pull itself up from the bottom of the pouch about six times its own body length, up to the milk patch area and suckle for the first time. And when you see it, it’s just nothing – smaller than a jellybean and you can see the milk in the stomach – it’s totally translucent – and you know that in six months time it’s going to be covered with spines and look like an echidna.

The mother echidna is then released into the grassland.