Regular Random – Echidna

Leaving in Australia, we have some rather strange animals, not seen anywhere else in the world, sure we have koalas (not bears), kangaroos and wombats, but one rarely seen, even by a native Aussie is the echidna, akin to a spiny anteater.

Echidnas are medium-sized, solitary mammals covered with coarse hair and spines. Spines and fur of an echidna Superficially, they resemble the anteaters of South America and other spiny mammals such as hedgehogs and porcupines. They are usually black or brown in colour. There have been several reports of albino echidnas, their eyes pink and their spines white.^[5] They have elongated and slender snouts that function as both mouth and nose. Like the platypus, they are equipped with electrosensors, but while the platypus has 40,000 electroreceptors on its bill, the long-beaked echidna has only 2,000 electroreceptors, and the short-beaked echidna, which lives in a drier environment, has no more than 400 located at the tip of its snout.^[6] They have very short, strong limbs with large claws, and are powerful diggers. Their claws on their hind limbs are elongated and curved backwards to help aid in digging. Echidnas have tiny mouths and toothless jaws. The echidna feeds by tearing open soft logs, anthills and the like, and using its long, sticky tongue, which protrudes from its snout, to collect prey. The ears are slits on the sides of their heads that are usually unseen, as they are blanketed by their spines. The external ear is created by a large cartilaginous funnel, deep in the muscle.^[5] At 33 °C, the echidna also possesses the second-lowest active body temperature of all mammals, behind the platypus.

On our recent adventure to Kangaroo Island, off the South Australian coast, one wandered across the road in front of us, of course, I yelled ‘STOP!’ I did not want to hit the poor thing. I am a city girl, a seeing an echidna in the wild is a real thrill for me, this fellow was very obliging and let me take several photos before he eventually crossed the road and disappeared into the bush. I also saved his life by stopping another car on the road from running him over…I guess I am a Hero lol.

Would you like to join in the RegularRandom crew? Here’s how:

Version 1:

choose a subject or a scene
spend five minutes photographing it – no more!
try to not interfere with the subject, instead see it from many angles, look through something at it, change the light that’s hitting it
have fun!
tag your post #regularrandom and ping back to this post

Version 2:

choose an object
spend five minutes photographing it – no more!
put the object in different locations to see how the background or surroundings can change the way the object looks
have fun!
tag your post #regularrandom and ping back to this post

Did you see Desley’s amazing Unicorn cupcakes last week? Oh wow too cute.

~ Julz