Echidna (Spiny Anteater) 02

Echidna (Spiny Anteater) 02



Victor the echidna is cool! He's not a porcupine, nor a hedgehog, but he has quills! Listen to Favio tell us about him at the San Diego Children's Zoo. He's old! 54! He is the oldest mammal in the zoo! Meet this strange and wonderful creature called an echidna, or spiny anteater. From Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania, this primitive mammal is like the duckbill platypus in that THE GIRLS CAN LAY EGGS! This unique creature from prehistoric times has adapted over many many years. They have no teeth, but a long sticky tongue to eat ants, earthworms and termites. It has a very good sense of smell at the end of it's nose (or beak), and good ears (has ear slits) and can dig like crazy - just look at those claws! To have babies, the female lays sort of a leathery egg the size of a grape! She rolls the small egg into a pouch on her stomach. A baby echidna that hatches 10 days later is called a PUGGLE! She secretes from a gland in the pouch to feed the baby... she has no nipples like other mammals. When I am walking through the children's zoo, I can usually smell Victor, cause he is stinky! I wish I could have seen his long tongue. He was very well behaved but had to poo, andd that was really stinky. Luckily I had a nice smelling plumeria flower I had found on the ground. The zoo has a million plants besides just having animals. For FREE CARTOON ANIMAL CLIP ARTS visit my website at http://www.lillyarts.com. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echidna ABOUT ECHIDNAS AT WIKIPEDIA AND http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-echidna.html ECHIDNA INFO AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO AND http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/mammals/echidna.html AUSTRALIA TASMANIA PARKS ECHIDNA