ZooBorns

UPDATE! Beau the Orphaned Echidna Now Has Spikes

You’ve been watching Beau the orphaned puggle (baby Echidna) grow up on the pages of ZooBorns ever since it was found on a hiking trail near Sydney, Australia and brought to the Taronga Zoo.   

Upon arriving at the zoo in October, Beau was about a month old and nearly hairless.  About a month later, you could see fine hairs beginning to sprout.  Now, Beau is growing the coat of protective spikes typical of adult Echidnas. 

Photo Credits:  Taronga Zoo

 “I’m thrilled with Beau’s speedy development!  With fur and larger spines, Beau certainly looks like an Echidna now!” said veterinary nurse Annabelle Sehlmeier, who also acts as Beau’s surrogate mother.

More agile and co-ordinated, Beau is also starting to explore the surroundings and exhibit Echidna behaviours.

“Beau’s become adventurous and now climbs out of the travelling box. When disturbed, the young Echidna will flinch, curl up, or dig into the dirt, which is exactly what Echidnas do,” Annabelle explained.

The puggle, which weighs about three pounds (1.3 kg), lives in a large plastic tub with dirt for burrowing, although it still finds comfort in its nesting box that contains shredded paper and a tea towel.

 

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UPDATE: Beau the Orphaned Echidna Puggle is Going Strong

ZooBorns has been keeping fans of Beau the Echidna puggle updated on his progress ever since he was introduced on October 23.  That's when the Taronga Zoo first shared photos of the tiny baby Echidna after he was found orphaned on a hiking trail near Sydney, Australia.  Taronga Zoo staff estimate that he was about a month old at the time of his rescue.

Photo Credit:  Taronga Zoo

Two months later, Beau is growing strong under the care of the Taronga Zoo staff.  Beau will take milk from his keepers' hands for several more months, as Echidnas are not fully weaned until they are seven or eight months old.  Echidna puggles normally suck milk from patches on their mothers' bellies, rather than from teats. 

Echidnas are mammals, but they belong to a subgroup of mammals called monotremes.  This speical group includes Echidnas and Platypus, and they are the only mammals that lay eggs.

World's First Breeding of Zoo-Born Echidnas at Perth Zoo

Perth Zoo’s groundbreaking Echidna breeding program has produced two puggles (baby Echidnas) and a breeding milestone: These puggles represent the first successful breeding from zoo-born Echidnas and have shown that Echidnas breed at a younger age than previously thought.

The puggles were born to four-year-old first-time mothers Mila and Chindi, both bred and born at Perth Zoo.  The new additions were named Nyingarn (Nyoongar for Echidna) and Babbin (Nyoongar for friend).  The puggles weighed less than one gram each when they hatched in August and spent their first two months in their mothers’ pouches before being deposited in nursery burrows. DNA testing will reveal the puggles’ genders.

 

“Until now, it was believed female Echidnas did not breed until the age of five so these latest births have shed new light on Echidna reproduction,” Environment Minister Bill Marmion said.  The groundbreaking work of the Perth Zoo’s Short-beaked Echidna breeding program could help conserve its endangered cousin, the Long-beaked Echidna.  The Perth Zoo has produced eight of the 24 Short-beaked Echidnas that have been bred in captivity.

Short-beaked Echidnas are part of a group of mammals called monotremes.  Females lay a single egg, which is incubated for about 11 days before it hatches.  The baby, called a puggle, completes its development in the mother’s pouch.  As adults, Short-beaked Echidnas are covered with spines.  They feed on insects, which are collected with their long, sticky tongues.

Photo Credit:  Perth Zoo

Baby Echidna Puggle Update!

Does this puggle look familiar? Many ZooBorns readers first learned about puggles after being introduced to this little girl on October 23. We're happy to report that Beau, Taronga Zoo's Short-beaked Echidna baby, also known as a puggle, is doing very well under the watchful eyes of the nurses in their wildlife hospital.

In the wild, female Echidnas return to their burrow every few days to feed their offspring, so Beau gets fed milk every three days, which has helped her triple in size. Her caregivers have begun exposing the youngster to dirt, so that Beau can learn to dig and burrow! She is developing a prickly coating of spikes, which rise a few millimetres above her skin, as pictured in its most recent image below.

Photo Credit: photo 1, Ben Gibson, Photo 2, Lorinda Taylor

In case you ddin't see it, here's the video of Beau nursing and getting cleaned up. 

 

Meet Beau, The Orphan Echidna Puggle

A 30-day-old Short-Beaked Echidna (puggle) was brought to Taronga Zoo after it was found helpless on a hiking trail near Sydney, Australia. It's quite possible the tiny puggle  fell out of its mother's pouch as typically, Echidna babies are left in cozy burrows at around 45 days of age. Echidna moms typically return to these dens once every few days to feed their young. At the moment, this tiny orphaned puggle is sucking milk from her human caretaker's hand. Female Echindas do not have teats, but rather feed their young from milk patches on their bodies. Echidnas are not weened until six or seven months of age, so this little one will be receiving lots of T.L.C. in the months to come.

Photo credit: Ben Gibson / Taronga Zoo

 

Pricklier By The Day, Perth's Puggle is Growing Up!

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

 

Meet Perth's Newest Baby Puggle!

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

 

Perth's Uggly Puggle Babies

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