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Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)

Posted on Jun 19, 2007 by in Other Orders | 8 comments

Tachyglossus aculeatus
Number 0017

May I introduce the monotremes? They are an ancient order of mammals, now including only the duck-billed platypus and a few species of echidna. Monotremes are very strange creatures, mammals that lay eggs and nurse their young (which are called puggles!) after they hatch, although they don’t have teats and instead secrete milk from their pores! This one, the short-beaked echidna, is the most widely distributed animal in Australia, and appears on one of Australia’s coins. Echidnas don’t have teeth—they suck up insects through their long noses, like anteaters and armadillos do. My pal Dana requested an echidna drawing.

8 Comments

  1. fun!

    i am looking forward to your platypus

    :)

  2. Thanks, Alan! I’ve had a couple of requests for a platypus, but I’ve hesitated because I don’t want to do ALL the weird/neat/beloved mammals in the first few months of my project! But I might not be able to resist much longer…

  3. Okay, okay.

    I can wait for the platypus.

    But I think it is unfair that Herman gets everything she asks for and I get nothing.

    [sigh]

    If you do a guanaca before you do a platypus, I’ll know you like Herman more than me.

    Which is alright.

  4. Guanaca? Who said anything about a guanaca?

    (By the way — what’s a guanaca?)

  5. Alan, I’m finding this rather strange. I have a friend who did request a guanaco, in person just the other day, but he swears he’s not Herman, and in fact your friend Herman seems to live in Seattle, while my friend doesn’t. There is no mention of a guanaco anywhere on this site except in this comment thread, and neither Herman nor my friend requested one on this site.

    Why did you mention the guanaco?

  6. Hermann sent me a guanaco link a few days ago:

    Just the latest in a long line of Guanaco picture links and references stretching back to January 2006.

    She sends me lots of animal links, including introducing me to this blog.

    Maybe you could do an elk from one of her photos (scroll to bottom).

    Or a giraffe (or a Guanaco! – also at bottom).

  7. Well, that is just so weird. My friend, who is also named Herman although he doesn’t go by it, had literally requested a guanaco the day before you posted about it. But now it makes sense, and your Herman’s photographs are beautiful. A guanaco is coming up, as is a platypus, but not yet!

  8. Cool beans!

    My Hermann not only doesn’t go by Hermann, but that isn’t even her real name (shhhh!).

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