Kai the Echidna born last year at Perth Zoo is growing well. Now Kai weighs nearly 1.2 kg and, as you can see, the spines are really starting to come through. Kai is the sixth echidna born at Perth Zoo since 2007. A mother Echidna incubates a single egg for about 11 days before it hatches. The puggle weighs less than one gram when it hatches. The puggle is then carried around in its mother’s pouch for two months before being deposited in a nursery burrow.
Photo credits: Perth Zoo
A prickly new arrival made its first public appearance at Perth Zoo yesterday. The Echidna Puggle, the latest breeding success at the zoo, was given a quick weigh and inspection by keepers, before being placed back in its nursery burrow where it will spend the next two to three months. The youngster weighed in at 526 grams and will continue to grow over the next three to four years before reaching the normal adult weight of around 4 kg. The Puggle, named Kai (Nyoongar for surprise), weighed less than one gram when it hatched in September and spent the first two months of its life in its mother’s pouch. “Once the puggle’s spines started to emerge the mother deposited it in the nursery burrow,” Perth Zoo’s Australian Fauna Supervisor Arthur Ferguson said.
Photo credit: Perth Zoo
Two Puggles (baby echidnas) born in August were put on display for the media at Australia's Perth Zoo yesterday. The Puggles' names are Moa and Kain. Having bred the notoriously difficult-to-breed species three years in a row, the zoo believes it has the foundation of a captive breeding program for its critically endangered cousin, the long-beaked echidna of New Guinea.
Daniel Scarparolo/Perth Zoo
