12 Things You Didn't Know About the Strange and Spiky Echidna

The echidna is often called a spiny anteater for its needle-shaped nose and porcupine-like quills, but it isn't, in fact, an anteater at all. And that's just one of the many ways the unusual creature defies categorization. The last surviving members of the order Monotremata, native to Australia and New Guinea, are enigmatic among mammals, with their peculiar egg-laying and androgynous pouches. Here are a few things you may not know about these anomalous, spike-bearing animals from Down Under. 1. Echidnas Are One of the Only Mammals That Lay Eggs
Close-Up Of Echidna At Beach Against Sky
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Other than echidnas, the only mammal that lays eggs is the duck-billed platypus, which happens to be its closest relative. Each year, the female echidna lays a single egg — about the size of a dime — which she rolls into a kangaroo-like pouch that develops just for the occasion. About 10 days later, her young will hatch and remain in the pouch, lapping up milk secreted by its mother, until it's nearly two months old.