At first glance, this little guy appears to be a porcupine. At least that’s what I thought. Perhaps—no, probably—you’re cleverer than I am and recognized it for the monotreme it is: an Echidna. For those of you who did not recognize it as such, or for that matter have any clue as to what in the world an Echidna is, welcome to my world! Luckily for both of us, Google is around. Now prepare yourself for some minor enlightenment, and major cuteness.
The Echidna (pronounced ih-KID-na) is, as I mentioned earlier, a monotreme. Remember way back when in Biology class when you learned that the Duckbilled Platypus is an egg-laying mammal? Well that’s a monotreme! And then remember how your professor told you that there was one other such mammal, but you could never remember what the other one was? Well that’s the Echidna!
There are two types of echidnas: long-beaked and short-beaked. These little critters, much like the spiny anteater, love to munch on termites and ants. They have no teeth, and pick up their grub with their long, sticky tongues. How cute is that?
Now check this out: apparently the Greeks didn’t recognize the echidnas for the adorable little buggers they are. In fact, the echidna gets its name from the Greek for “Mother of All Monsters”. Apparently Hesiod started this ugly rumor that the echidna was spawned in a cave and then mated with every possible horrible monster there was, thus making her the mother of all monsters. How rude!
Fortunately today we know all about the Echidna, and how harmless and awesome they truly are. Still, I doubt there’s any argument the chocolate cake echidna is preferable to the spiny, sticky-tongued one.
Good to eat:
Not good to eat:
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