MEET YOUR NEIGHBOUR…
Tachyglossus aculeatus - a monotreme! Wow what a mouth full -
perhaps we should just call him an Echidna!
‘Tacky glossus acul eat us’ is a welcome sight around Somers. To
see a dark, shinny, prickly ‘mushroom’ rocking along a path,
stopping to make tiny nose holes in the dust or standing up licking
termites from a tree base proves that all is well with the
world.
This prickly character began life as a soft leathery egg that
was laid into his mother’s pouch where he hatched blind and
hairless after ten days and then, attached to a milk patch on his
mothers skin inside the pouch, he suckled for the next eight to
twelve weeks. He was then called a ‘puggle!
Puggle’s mother had dug a burrow before Puggle was born and once
his prickles began to grow he was evicted from the pouch and made
to stay at home alone waiting for his mum to come and feed him
milk. Puggle stayed at home for six long months growing short
course hair to keep him warm and sharp spines to make him safe. His
claws grew hard and sharp so that he would be able to dig up ants
when he ventured from the burrow and his nose grew longer and
pointier and his tongue grew longer and sticky.
In about February Puggle ventured from the burrow. He was now a
small, shinny, prickly Echidna who had to learn to dig and search
out insects using his sensitive snout with which he can feel the
electric signals given out by ants’ bodies.
He had to learn to hide from danger or curl up tight to protect
his soft belly.
He had to eat a great many ants so that one day he might grow to
measure thirty five to forty five centimeters long and weigh as
much as seven kilos!
Now he is your neighbour – a useful neighbour as he loves to eat
the termites that love to eat your house.
Think of him when you garden. Don’t make your garden too tidy
because the muddle is his home. You will be poorer if you evict
your neighbour the Echidna and the termites become your
neighbours!
Rosemary Birney
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