Australiana 3! The "punk rocker" monotreme and a little champion!

Wow, a handsome spiky dude! Cool!! I heard about the rolling up thing before. I think, I saw it in Discovery channel sometime back. What about his habitat?

Ah they are fascinating little critters. I hear about them all the time when the boss comes home with stories of strange strangled barking by our dog. I have never actually seen this and am thinking that maybe I should go walking with them to see this strange sight. Well I have been once or twice and I have seen the wallabies, or giant rabbits as our dog thinks, but I have not seen an echidna except as a little ball of spikes. I would love to see one hard at work on an ant hill but its a bit tough with our dog around.

Australia is home to some very strange animals, at least for non Australian people. I haven´t seen your previous posts, but I imagine one of the three unique animals you talk about must be the ornitorrinkus and the third perhaps the emu or the koala.

Had you not introduced our firend Echidna here, i would have though that he was "Spiky the Anteater", sort of a mutated version of a anteater or a hedgehog. Only 3 unique anuimals to Australia James ? Where are the rest of them ?. I wonder how people can eat an animal like this ?

i think i missed the austrailiana 1 discussion.this is really informative.my kids are more interested in seeing this pic.i think this is the first time i have heard about this dude.as the saying goes,better late than never.lol.

I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of one of these little fellows about 4 hours ago. Nearing dusk, and he/she was on the way down to the creek for sevenses, and I came across it at the side of the track I was walking down. Or rather, the faithful hound found it, as I realised as soon as I heard his strangled yowling that indicates "echidna". The echidna just rolled into a ball and waited till we moved on, but when I came back ten minutes later it appeared that he/she had got sidetracked and was trying to dig some ants out of a nest at the side of the track. We doffed our caps to one another and I went on with my walk. I do so love living here lol. Apart from the several echidna territories we cross every day, there are three or four rock wallabies in the area, one lonely young male koala, a pod of large goannas, and an amazing variety of birds. I intend to start taking my camera with me so I can maybe share some of them with Mylotters. Why stop here James? There are always the quokkas, the goannas, the bush turkeys, the dingo for that matter, the emu, and all the kangaroo family. Oh yes, and the Devil. Lash

If in a quiz, I would have shouted - Porcupine !! lol. It looks like its twin. Can hide easily with jackfruits.lol. A handsome creature it is! But the rear claws or nails.....looks very very sharp. Echidna. Yes, its snouty mouth looks like its an insect eater.Or, Is it a herbivore?