Ugly rebel baby

We've seen echidna babies on this blog before: from one that's younger and creepily hairless, to one that's old enough to have reached the ugdorable stage. But this one... even knowing that baby echidnas have the cute name of "puggle" isn't enough to make this anything but hideous.

Its ugly childhood is actually far from the most notable feature of the echidna: it's an egg-laying mammal. The egg hatchs after about two weeks and then the mother carries the puggle in her pouch for about two months. Then, says the Perth Zoo where this one was born, “Once the puggle’s spines started to emerge the mother deposited it in the nursery burrow.” Ouch.

Along with the platypus, echidnas belong to a group called monotremes that thinks it's too special to obey the rules that everyone else has to follow to join the mammal club. I suppose the echidna figures that as long as it doesn't have a duck's bill, it's still less of a radical than its closest relative.

Thanks to Zooborns for the tip.

-Wombat (No Relation)

Puggle Pictures

Cait took up my challenge to find a good stash of quality echidna puggle pictures (ooh, that would be a good studio name, 'Puggle Pictures'...). Here is what she found.

I contacted the photographer, Den, and he not only let me use them, but also sent me this link if you want to see more. Den works to rehabilitate these critters, and has expressed his ire that platypuses get all the love, while the echidna is left in the dark. I agree with his sentiments.

Photos courtesy: Den Whitton

Perfect Name

I cannot explain how much I like this animal, or rather, this baby. Callum sent me this link, and my world has changed.

Behold the puggle. No, not the all-the-rave beagle-pug hybrid. This is a baby echidna. Echidnas and platypus are the only Australian marsupials to lay eggs, which is one possible reason as to why their offspring were given their own name: puggle. Don't Aussie animals have some great names? When puggles hatch, they only measure about 1.3 cm and about 0.3 of a gram (that's tiny, y'all).

My only disappointment here is that there aren't better images on the web. I'll offer my eternal esteem (that's priceless, baby) for whoever can dig up some quality puggle shots.


Photos courtesy: Fourth Crossing Wildlife

Representing the Monotremes

Most newborn mammals evoke parental feelings in humans. But there are a few species out there that sometimes go against that trend, like bears, marsupials, and monotremes. Monotremes? Those are the egg-laying mammals of our planet, represented by the platypus and the echidna.

Though the creature below may look like something you had your dermatologist scrape off with a scalpel, it is actually puggle, or a baby echidna. I'm sure that it wriggles and makes little whimpering noises and otherwise endears itself to its handler, but I'm having to work way too hard to keep my already primed paternal instinct engaged.























Most likely it's within the last couple of weeks of being in its mother's pouch, because soon it will sprout spines and mommy will boot it out, to live in a den. Mom will come back every five days to nurse it, until it's weaned at seven months. Then it will have to strike out on its own and find colonies of ants upon which to prey.

Oh, little lumpy puggle, you have such a spiny, ant-filled world to look forward to.

Of Spines, Chickens, and Ants

What lays chickens like an egg, has spines like a porcupine, has a pouch like a wombat, and an appetite and tongue like an anteater? You guessed it: Echidna, the mate of Typhon and daughter of Ceto, who gave birth to Cerberus, Chimera, Sphynx, Hydra, and others...

...wait, I've got my mythology and biology crossed...

Echidna is an Australian creature which comes in both long-beaked and short-beaked varieties. They are powerful diggers and are the bane of ants in the scrublands they call their home (let's face it: ants have it coming). The female echidna lays a single, grape-sized egg once a year. She rolls the egg into her pouch and ten days later gives birth to a puggle. Thus is born the next generation of befuddling beasts.

Thanks for the photo, David.

Photo source: Cleveland Metroparks Zoo via BudgetTravel.com