Physical description: Covered in hair and barbed spines. Belly has little hair and no spines. Range from black to light brown in color. Spines are a light yellow color and longer than the fur between them. small head with no visible neck. the nostrils and mouth are at the end of the snout. Eyes are near the base of the snout. Ear openings are small vertical slits and are not usually visible spines, and hair usually covers them. Short limbs and shovel-like claws, 5 long, flat claws ideal for digging. 

Key characteristics: 6-7.5 cm long snout

Size: 35-52 cm in length, 6-7.5 cm long snout

Weight: up to 6 kg

Life span: up to 50 years in captivity, range of 15-40 years in the wild with average of 10 years

Difference between males and females: 

• Females are smaller than males

• Females have a pouch

• Males have spurs in hind legs

• Within Australia they live in all terrestrial habitats. mountains, tropics/rainforest, open woodland, eucalyptus woodland, grasslands/savannah, aird zones, beaches, and coasts. 

• In New Guinea they live in a verity of habitats. Includes open woodlands and forests

• Overall they can live an any area as long it has enough food for them.

• Prefer areas with vegetation that provides cover. Under rocks, in hollow logs, hollows at the base of trees, piles of leaves, bunch grasses, or soil to dig in. 

• Annual rainfall of areas in Australia is an average less than 16 in

• They are illlequiped to handel temperatures higher than 35 degree celcius. since they have no sweat glands they have to find shelter and shade to help regulate their body temperature. They also can handle tmperaturesbelow 4 degrees celcus since they will go into hybernation.

• Nonnative foxes and dingos are animals that will hunt them. they need lots of bud since that is their diet. 

Found in Australia and south-eastern New Guinea. Includes Tasmania and offshore islands, as well as nearby islands to New Guinea.

This animal is not invasive

Short beaked echidnas are insectivores. Their diet consists of termites, ants, worms, and grubs. Termite however make up a majority of their diet. 

They eat around 40,000 individual ants and termites a day

They have learned to seek out the weak part of colony such as queens, larvae, and pupae. 

They locate their food manly through smell. Once they have found their food they dig their way into ant or termite nests with front paws and then extends its long, sticky toung into the nest. the insects stick to it and are brought into its mouth.

Their mouth opening is about 5 mm wide so they are limited to prey of that size. Since they have no teeth they rely on their tounge to grind up their food. 

• They are solitary animals

• Short beaked echidnas are both prey and predator. They are predators when they eat insects, but larger animals do allso hunt them.

• They only time there is a group of Short beaked echidnas is when they mate. During this time it is female led because the males are fighting for the female.

• They have a 1 annual breeding period. Lasts 7-37 days

• They lay a single egg each matting. 

• Their mating season is from June to September

• Male ecidnas activley seek out females to mate with. They have a behavior called Ecidna train. A male or group of males follw a single female, they do this single file. It is usually 4 males or fewer but it can be up to 11. The males follow the female jostling her and the other males competing for the right to mate with her.

• They are one of the 2 known mammals that lay eggs. The other is the palatypus. 

Stages of development

After matting the female lays a single egg into her pouch. 10 days after the egg is laid it is hatched in the pouch. The embroy uses an egg tooth to tear through the egg but it soon disapers. The newly born short beaked ecidna is 1.5 cm in lenght an weights between 0.3-0.4 grams. They are known as puggels

Their eyes are bearly devlopept, but their front limbs and didgets are well defined. THis allows them to be abel to climb on their mothers bodies. They attach them selved to certain areas of the mother bodies that secreat milk. They reach 400 g around 2 months of age.

Around 2 or 3 months they are ejected from the pouch. They are left in covered burrow while the mother gathers food. They are weaned off of the mother milk around 6 months of age. AFter 180-205 days they finally leave the burrow. After this there is no contact between the mother and young.

Sexual maturity can happen between 5-12 years of age. It more commonly happens closer to year 5.

Young short beaked echidnas are eaten by dingos, goannas, snakes, and cats. Adult short beaked echidnas are eaten by dingos, egals, foxes, and the tasmanina devil.

They do not die during mating

They are somethimes infested by parasites. ticks and forms of coccidiosis. They commonly have the bacterial disease salmonella. They are also affect by the viral disease multisystemic herpes virus. They also commonly have the fungal diseases oesophagitis and gastritis.

They are frequently killed on roads

The only competition that happens is during mating when the males fight for the female

They only compete with other animals when they are being hunted by predetors.

No invasive species direclty effects this animal. 

They are currnelty of least concern and their population is stable

Their population is around 10,000 mature individuals