10 Weird Echidna Facts

Baby echidnas are called puggles. What an adorable name for a little blob.

There is no official name for a baby platypus. You can call one a puggle.

A female echidna keeps one fertilized egg in a rear-facing pouch for 10 days until it hatches. She keeps the new baby echidna in her pouch for two to three months before she pushes it out. The puggle stays in its mother's den up to a year.

If a male echidna wakes early from hibernation, it might enter a female's burrow while she sleeps. Then, surprise! She wakes up pregnant.

They are not very big. Size depends on what you expect.

Echidnas belong to the order Monotreme.Monotreme.Monotremes lay eggs. Platypuses lay eggs, and there are four species of echidnas. These five species make up all the monotremes.

Echidnas feed their young milk, but they do not have nipples. Instead, female echidnas have two "milk patches" where babies suckle.

How does this work? WhileEchidnas reproduce.two of the heads stop working while the other two function. It alternates heads every time it gets down to business. This happens because female echidnas have a two-branched reproductive tract.

Three echidna species are "long-beaked echidnas." The fourth species is the "short-beaked echidna." Each has a long snout ending in a tiny, toothless hole. They eat ants and bugs. They shoot out a long, sticky tongue and swallow the food. This gives them the "spiny anteater" nickname, though echidnas are not anteaters (they eat ants, though).

During breeding season, male echidnas form lines of up to 10 to circle a single female and try to mate. These trains travel together for weeks. Males leave and join other lines, then return or do whatever they want. When the female is ready to mate, the males push each other until only one remains.

An echidna's body temperature changes all day. It drops from 90°F (32°C) to about 86°F (30°). During hibernation, its temperature can drop as low as 41C. During hibernation, the animal's temperature can drop to 41.C).F (5°C.