Echidnas and Platypus

ECHIDNAS and PLATYPUS
Mammal - Vertebrate - Carnivore

DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS

ECHIDNA

Male: Boar

Female: Sow

Young: Puddle

ECHIDNAS

An egg-laying mammal with a pouch.
Both males and females have a pouch.
The female lays an egg and carefully puts it in her pouch.
Ten days later, the egg hatches and will stay in the pouch, feeding on milk, for the next two months.
Commonly called a spiny anteater..
Look like a cross between a hedgehog and an anteater.
Has a long snout, and a long sticky tongue..
Has a tongue 60cm long.
Features on the reverse side of the Australian five-cent coin.
Millie, an Echidna, was a mascot the the 2000 Summer Olympics.

The Duck-Billed Platypus

Also lays eggs, lactates but has no nipples.
Is semi-aquatic.
Legs are short, but powerful, and has webbed feet, and the digits have large claws which are useful for burrowing.
Hunts via electricity.
Each ankle of the male platypus, there is a spur which is connected to poison-glands in its thighs.
Has a venom with 80 different kinds of toxins, but is not poisonous to man.
Eats small freshwater animals which it hunts at night.
Can live for up to 17 years.

Short-beaked Echidna

Has a compact, round body, closely set with spines.
At the end of its snout is a small, slit-like mouth, through which its long tongue is extended.
Have no teeth.
Eats mainly ants and termites

Long-beaked Echidna

Is larger than the short-beaked Echidna.
Has fewer spines and its snouth is two-thirds the length of its head and curves slightly downwards.
Have no teeth.
Eats mainly worms and insect larvae.