THE ANIMAL FILES

Short-beaked echidna

Tachyglossus aculeatus

An egg-laying mammal with a tongue made for tiny prey.

The short-beaked echidna is a spiny mammal that catches ants and termites with a sticky tongue. Females lay an egg and then nourish the hatchling with milk.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
Short-beaked echidna
Image: Charles J. Sharp · Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Hair in a different form
The spines are modified hairs.[1]
A sticky food collector
Mucus helps the tongue catch ants and termites.[1]
Egg first, milk next
A pouch-held egg hatches before milk feeding.[1]

Hair in a different form

Cream-coloured spines cover much of the body, with fur between them. The spines are made mainly of keratin rather than being bare bones. Short powerful limbs and strong claws support digging.[1]

A sticky food collector

A long tongue projects through the narrow mouth and carries sticky mucus. Ants and termites adhere to it before it retracts.[1]

Egg first, milk next

A female lays a soft-shelled egg into a temporary abdominal pouch. After hatching, the young receives milk from specialised skin patches; monotremes lack nipples.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Does laying an egg make an echidna a reptile?

No. It is a monotreme mammal; laying an egg and nourishing young with milk coexist in its life cycle.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why is a narrow mouth not a problem for collecting ants?

Reveal the explanation

The sticky tongue reaches out to collect small prey and brings them back. The mouth need not open around each insect.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Short-beaked echidna (cited revision)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Tachyglossus aculeatus

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

Common opossumA forest forager can make use of a surprising number of hiding places.Didelphis marsupialis ↗ThylacineA tiger name, a wolf-like outline, and a marsupial pouch.Thylacinus cynocephalus ↗Tasmanian devilA scavenger's meal is not the same as a kill.Sarcophilus harrisii ↗