Short-beaked Echidna
Tachyglossus aculeatus
Also known as Short Beaked Echinda, Short Nosed Echidna, Echidna
- Where to see one
- 4 U.S. zoos in our directory hold short-beaked echidna, confirmed against each zoo's own animal list.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated
This species has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List, so it sits outside the threat scale entirely.
About the short-beaked echidna
The short-beaked echidna is a spiny, egg-laying mammal and the most widespread native mammal in Australia, also living in coastal and highland eastern New Guinea. It is covered in fur and spines, with a leathery snout and a sticky tongue that it uses to catch ants and termites. Powerful front limbs and claws let it tear apart logs and dig quickly. It cannot sweat, so in hot weather it avoids daytime activity, and in the Australian winter it hibernates. Individuals are solitary, and a female lays one egg a year, which she carries in a pouch.
Short-beaked Echidna facts
- Its tongue can reach up to 180 mm outside the snout and moves in and out about 100 times a minute.
- The snout can detect electric fields and an echidna has been reported digging up buried batteries.
- Unlike the largely smooth-brained platypus, the echidna has a heavily folded and fissured brain, similar to that of humans.
- A newborn echidna is about the size of a grape and is expelled from the pouch at around seven weeks.
Where to see short-beaked echidna in the U.S.
4 zoos across 2 states
Find the closest one
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AZAThe Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Accredited members have passed an independent inspection of animal care and welfare, safety, conservation and education, repeated every five years. Many smaller facilities never apply, so “not accredited” isn't a verdict on its own. What accreditation means · How we check this
Built from each zoo's own published animal list.
