Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus is the most widely dis­trib­uted ex­tant monotreme. Sub­species of T. ac­ulea­tus are dis­trib­uted through­out south­ern and east­ern New Guinea, main­land Aus­tralia, Kan­ga­roo Is­land, and Tas­ma­nia. This range in­cludes large por­tions of the three coun­tries of Aus­tralia, In­done­sia, and Papua New Guinea. ("Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus", 1991; Aplin, et al., 2008; Groves, 2005)

• Biogeographic Regions
• australian
  • native

Habi­tat

Short-beaked echid­nas thrive in a va­ri­ety of habi­tats in­clud­ing open wood­lands, sa­vanna, agri­cul­tural areas, semi-arid, and arid re­gions. Both coastal and high­land areas in New Guinea are home to Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus, along with a range of ecosys­tems in Aus­tralia from mild coastal re­gions to above snow­line. Short-beaked echid­nas have a broad al­ti­tu­di­nal range from sea level to at least 1,675 me­ters. (Aplin, et al., 2008; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• rainforest
• scrub forest
• mountains

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

• Range elevation

  0 to 1,675 m

  0.00 to ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Short-beaked echid­nas are medium-sized mam­mals rang­ing in length from about 30 to 40 cm and in weight from about 2 to 7 kg. De­pend­ing on the sub­species and lo­ca­tion, males or fe­males may be larger. Short-beaked echidna spines are one of their most dis­tin­guish­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics. These spines cover the en­tire dor­sal sur­face, in­clud­ing a small tail. Fur is also pre­sent and may be even longer than the spines in some sub­species. Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus lacks ex­ter­nal pin­nae and teeth but does have hard pads in the back of the mouth. Short-beaked echid­nas pos­sess sev­eral adap­ta­tions to their for­ag­ing habits in­clud­ing tubu­lar snouts, long sticky tongues, and front paws for dig­ging. Males have non-ven­omous spurs on the an­kles of their hind legs and fe­males have pouches on their un­der­sides. Both males and fe­males have a cloaca through which feces, urine, and, in fe­males, eggs pass. Males have penises they ex­tend through the cloaca dur­ing mat­ing. Short-beaked echid­nas, and other monotremes, have low meta­bolic rates and low body tem­per­a­tures, which may be re­lated to such fac­tors as diet and en­vi­ron­men­tal vari­a­tion. Short-beaked echid­nas have larger brains than would be ex­pected for their body mass. The cere­bral cor­tex, in par­tic­u­lar, is large and highly con­vo­luted. (Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a; Riek, 2008)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  2 to 7 kg

  4.41 to 15.42 lb

• Range length

  30 to 45 cm

  11.81 to 17.72 in

• Average basal metabolic rate

  2.327 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus has a courtship pe­riod be­tween June and Au­gust that can last be­tween a few days and sev­eral weeks de­pend­ing on ge­o­graphic re­gion and sub­species. Fe­males may be pur­sued by one or sev­eral males dur­ing this pe­riod. Ob­ser­va­tions of mul­ti­ple males fol­low­ing in­di­vid­ual fe­males have led to the term “echidna train.” Fe­males will mate with only one male per sea­son. (Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Ges­ta­tion in Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus lasts about 23 days, after which the fe­male will lay a sin­gle soft-shelled egg in her pouch for in­cu­ba­tion. Eggs hatch 10 or 11 days later. Short-beaked echid­nas ex­hibit a long lac­ta­tion stage last­ing be­tween 150 and 200 days de­pend­ing on ge­og­ra­phy and sub­species. When the young leave the pouch three months later, they are cov­ered with spines. Mat­u­ra­tion time is lengthy. Young reach full adult size after three to five years. Hatch­lings have a mass of about 0.3 kg but will grow to weigh 0.7 to 2.1 kg by wean­ing. Wean­ing mass is 28 to 48% of adult mass. ("Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus", 1991; Aplin, et al., 2008; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Short-beaked echidnas breed once a year.

• Breeding season

  Mating usually occurs June through August.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 1

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  23 days

• Average gestation period

  22 days

  AnAge

• Range weaning age

  150 to 200 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  548 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  548 days

  AnAge

Sub­species vary in their strate­gies of car­ing for young. Short-beaked echid­nas on Kan­ga­roo Is­land for­age with the young in the pouch im­me­di­ately post-hatch­ing. After 45 to 55 days, moth­ers will de­posit their young in nurs­ery bur­rows, where the young will re­main until wean­ing. Moth­ers re­turn every five to ten days to nurse the young. Short-beaked echid­nas in Tas­ma­nia re­main in nurs­ery bur­rows with the young for 25 to 35 days post-birth. Moth­ers then re­turn to the bur­row every three to five days to nurse. Other sub­species ex­hibit vari­a­tions of parental care rang­ing be­tween these two ex­tremes. Moth­ers do not have nip­ples or teats, but nurse young through pores con­nected to their paired mam­mary glands. (Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The longest recorded lifes­pan for Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus is 50 years in cap­tiv­ity. There are anec­do­tal ac­counts of wild in­di­vid­u­als liv­ing as long as 45 years. There is no doubt this species is par­tic­u­larly long-lived, es­pe­cially for its size. A lifes­pan of 50 years is 3.7 times longer than would be ex­pected based on echidna body size. Other long-lived mam­mals have been ob­served to have per­ox­i­da­tion-re­sis­tant mem­brane com­po­si­tion, which de­scribes the ratio be­tween polyun­sat­u­rates and mo­noun­sat­u­rates in mem­brane lipids. Short-beaked echidna mem­branes were found to have lower polyun­sat­u­rate and higher mo­noun­sat­u­rate lev­els than ex­pected. This com­po­si­tion in­di­cates per­ox­i­cla­tion-re­sis­tant cel­lu­lar mem­branes in T. ac­ulea­tus. Lifes­pan is also as­so­ci­ated with the pro­duc­tion of free rad­i­cals, which is pro­por­tional to meta­bolic rate. Short-beaked echid­nas have no­tably low meta­bolic rates, with the ex­cep­tion of times of arousal from tor­por. Dur­ing these arousal pe­ri­ods, meta­bolic rates in­crease by up to nine times that of basal meta­bolic rates and free rad­i­cal pro­duc­tion is high. There­fore, T. ac­ulea­tus is thought to have stress re­sis­tance that con­tributes to a long lifes­pan. A large and com­plexly-struc­tured brain may be in­volved with longevity in T. ac­ulea­tus. Such brain char­ac­ter­is­tics are often cor­re­lated with life his­tory traits like slow mat­u­ra­tion and sin­gle births in other mam­mals. These traits, in turn, cor­re­late with a long lifes­pan. (Hul­bert, et al., 2008; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  45 (high) years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  50 (high) days

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  50.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  49.4 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Short-beaked echid­nas are semi-fos­so­r­ial, dig­ging in sub­strate for hi­ber­na­tion cover and to con­struct nurs­ery bur­rows. They de­crease en­ergy usage by hi­ber­nat­ing from early au­tumn to late spring. Short-beaked echid­nas re­duce their body tem­per­a­ture to 8 to 10 de­grees C dur­ing tor­por and use be­hav­ioral ther­moreg­u­la­tion to main­tain that pre­ferred body tem­per­a­ture. Dur­ing early hi­ber­na­tion, in­di­vid­u­als pre­fer cooler soil tem­per­a­tures com­pared with the cold­est pe­riod of hi­ber­na­tion, at which time they will move to warmer hi­ber­nac­ula. Dur­ing hi­ber­na­tion there are pe­ri­odic arousals from tor­por. The tim­ing of hi­ber­na­tion sea­sons varies by sub­species, ge­o­graphic lo­ca­tion, sex, and re­pro­duc­tive state. Short-beaked echid­nas are flex­i­ble in their ex­ploita­tion of sub­strates for hi­ber­nac­ula, com­monly using leaf lit­ter and grass tus­socks. (Nicol and An­der­son, 2007b; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial
• diurnal
• nocturnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• sedentary
• hibernation
• solitary

Home Range

Short-beaked echid­nas nest at tem­po­rary sites, and have over­lap­ping home ranges. Their move­ments de­pend on food avail­abil­ity and not ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity. ("Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus", 1991; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Short-beaked echid­nas sense other echid­nas pre­dom­i­nantly through smell. Re­cent find­ings sug­gest feces piles act as an im­por­tant in­tra-spe­cific form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. (El­ridge and Mensing, 2007; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Communication Channels
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Adult short-beaked echid­nas eat ants, ter­mites, and other in­ver­te­brates. They make for­ag­ing pits by dis­turb­ing the soil when look­ing for food, and they pre­fer for­ag­ing under the canopies of large trees. Their long snouts and sticky tongues re­flect their spe­cial­ized diet. Short-beaked echid­nas dig into ant and ter­mite nests with their front paws and poke their long, sticky tongue into nest crevices and grinds in­sects with its tooth pads. Their for­ag­ing habits make sep­a­rat­ing soil from food dif­fi­cult. Thus, much of their feces con­sists of soil. (El­ridge and Mensing, 2007; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

Pre­da­tion

Pre­da­tion is not a major threat to short-beaked echid­nas, even though feral cats, pigs, din­goes, and goan­nas are oc­ca­sional preda­tors. An­i­mal preda­tors are mostly a threat to young in bur­rows and to subadults. Adults es­cape pre­da­tion by hid­ing be­neath rocks or logs, or dig­ging into the ground until only the spiny back is ex­posed. Short-beaked echid­nas can also curl up to pro­tect their un­der­sides. De­spite the min­i­mal de­fense of many hi­ber­nac­u­lum ma­te­ri­als, pre­da­tion on hi­ber­nat­ing in­di­vid­u­als does not seem to be a prob­lem. After in­tro­duced preda­tors, the biggest in­flu­ence on T. ac­ulea­tus mor­tal­ity is the threat of motor ve­hi­cles. Over-hunt­ing by hu­mans may be­come a prob­lem in some areas of New Guinea. (Aplin, et al., 2008; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • feral cats (Felis catus)
  • pigs (Sus species)
  • dingoes (Canis lupus dingo)
  • goannas (Varanus species)

Ecosys­tem Roles

The for­ag­ing pits short-beaked echid­nas cre­ate be­come re­source traps and af­fect soil bio­geo­chem­istry. Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus may be im­por­tant in main­tain­ing proper nu­tri­ent cir­cu­la­tion through small-scale patch­i­ness in semi-arid re­gions. (El­ridge and Mensing, 2007)

• Ecosystem Impact
• creates habitat
• soil aeration

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Short-beaked echid­nas are hunted for food and for cer­e­mo­nial pur­poses, es­pe­cially in New Guinea. They main­tain small-scale patch­i­ness, which is an im­por­tant ecosys­tem ser­vice that keeps semi-arid re­gions func­tion­ing prop­erly. Their diet of ants, ter­mites, and other in­ver­te­brates may con­tribute to the con­trol of these species. (Aplin, et al., 2008; El­ridge and Mensing, 2007; Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Be­cause short-beaked echid­nas can live in agri­cul­tural areas, they may dis­rupt fields and gar­dens while for­ag­ing. (Nicol and An­der­son, 2007a)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

As of 2008, the IUCN listed Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus as a species of Least Con­cern. Short-beaked echid­nas have a broad dis­tri­b­u­tion, a large total pop­u­la­tion with a sta­ble trend, and are tol­er­ant of many habi­tat types. They occur in pro­tected areas and ap­pear to lack major threats. The IUCN did sug­gest mon­i­tor­ing the num­ber of T. ac­ulea­tus killed on major tourist roads. (Aplin, et al., 2008)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix I

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Michelle Cason (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Alaska Fair­banks, Link E. Olson (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Alaska Fair­banks.

Ref­er­ences

1991. Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus. Pp. xviii-xix, 2-3 in R Stra­han, ed. The Aus­tralian Mu­seum Com­plete Book of Aus­tralian Mam­mals. New South Whales: Corn­stalk Pub­lish­ing.

Aplin, K., C. Dick­man, L. Salas, K. Hel­gen. 2008. Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus. 2008 IUCN Redlist of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 15, 2008 at www.​iucnredlist.​org.

El­ridge, D., A. Mensing. 2007. For­ag­ing pits of the short-beaked echidna (Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus) as small-scale patches in a semi-arid Aus­tralian wood­land. Soil Bi­ol­ogy & Bio­chem­istry, 39: 1055-1065.

Groves, C. 2005. Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus. Pp. 1-2 in D Wil­son, D Reeder, eds. Mam­mal Species of the World: A Tax­o­nomic Ref­er­ence, Vol. 1. Wash­ing­ton: Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion Press.

Hul­bert, A., L. Beard, G. Grigg. 2008. The ex­cep­tional longevity of an egg-lay­ing mam­mal, the short-beaked echidna (Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus) is as­so­ci­ated with per­ox­i­da­tion-re­sis­tant mem­brane com­po­si­tion. Ex­per­i­men­tal Geron­tol­ogy, 43: 729-733.

Nicol, S., N. An­der­son. 2007. Cool­ing rate and body tem­per­a­ture reg­u­la­tion of hi­ber­nat­ing echid­nas (Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus). Jour­nal of Ex­per­i­men­tal Bi­ol­ogy, 210: 586-592.

Nicol, S., N. An­der­son. 2007. The his­tory of an egg-lay­ing mam­mal, the echidna (Tachy­glos­sus ac­ulea­tus). Eco­science, 14: 275-285.

Riek, A. 2008. Re­la­tion­ship be­tween meta­bolic rate and body weight in mam­mals: ef­fect of the study. Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 276: 187-194.