A baby echidna – one of Australia’s egg-laying monotremes – has been born and reared in a university for the first time. The baby, known as a puggle, was born earlier this month and has now been removed from its mother’s pouch for its first weigh-in. The scientists hope that, by researching this puggle and other echidnas, we will finally be able to understand some fundamental questions about the evolution of pregnancy in mammals.
The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), also known as the spiny anteater, has proved to be an extremely difficult species to breed in captivity. In spite of numerous attempts, a dedicated research colony had never been successfully established, though several zoos and wildlife sanctuaries have bred the species. Endangered echidna not seen in 60 years caught on camera Now, Oliver Griffith at Macquarie University in Sydney and his team are successfully rearing a puggle, which is thought to be the first in the world born at a university.
This week, it had become big enough that they felt confident in temporarily removing it from its mother’s pouch for weighing, which New Scientist was invited to witness. T. aculeatus is one of only five known species of monotremes, a group of mammals that lay eggs. The others are three different species of echidna in New Guinea and the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus).
Most researchers believe monotremes are an ancient mammalian lineage that predate placentals. Studying the chemical composition of echidna eggs may reveal how different they are to those of reptiles, which could give clues on when mammals and reptiles diverged, says Griffith. In early August, Griffith and his colleagues noticed that the puggle’s mother, named Kootear, had stopped eating and moving for around 10 days, a sign that birth is imminent.
Pregnant echidnas move their egg into a pouch, where it incubates while the female is fasting and immobilised. When it was checked for the third time, the researchers anaesthetised Kootear so the puggle could be briefly removed. They found it weighed 36 grams and was starting to look like an echidna, albeit one without any spines or fur.
The university’s echidnas are unlikely to ever be released into the wild.
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