Habitat

The short-nosed, or short-beaked, echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) can be found in Australia and Northwest New Guiana. It tends to live in the temperate areas of Australia and low land New Guiana, and in not considered to be an endangered species. Tachyglossus aculeatus can be found in many different areas though, as it doesn't require a specialized terrain. The only real requirement for a living area is a good amount of ants and termites, which it will roam to get. The echidna is a home range species, meaning that it does not occupy one specific territory (Nicol et al. 2011). Instead it will roam around large open areas looking for prey, and will simply stay wherever its hunting takes it. The echidna tends to roam in a wide rage of areas such as urban outskirts, coastal forests and dry inland to support its diet of ants and termites. They will also feed on other invertebrates such as scarab beetles and earthworms seasonally (Scheelings and Haynes 2012). Tachyglossus aculeatus is solitary, living life alone, aside from reproduction periods when it will live in a burrow with young offspring (Rismiller and Mckelvey 2003). Competition for land does not usually arise between multiple short-nosed echidnas; they tend to live just fine with others present and will occasionally share a shelter although not permanently.

The environments that echidnas live in are usually quite hot. They do not have any specialized mechanisms for dealing with this heat such as sweat glands. They can adjust circulation by moving blood to and from there skin to increase or decrease heat loss. This helps out some, but is still not enough for the heat echidnas face. To make up for this, they will switch to nocturnal hunting when the hottest parts of the year come around, but will hunt during the day whenever the heat is bearable. Short-beaked echidnas can also swim to decrease there body temperature, but not all will be close enough to water to do this. They can survive fine with no water it swim in. Find out more about their adaptations on the Form and Functions page. Some areas that these ant-eaters frequent are being cut down and flatted by humans. Unlike many species, this does not have much effect on the echidna because cut down logs provide good sources of termites and shelter.

 

 

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