THE ENIGMATIC ECHIDNA

There are few animals more unusual than the echidna – a spiky, egg-laying mammal that eats ants. But some of the most striking things about echidnas are things most of us don’t know. That they use their snout like a snorkel when they swim, that they can sense electromagnetic fields, that they have intriguingly complex brains, startling physical strength and ‘backwards’ back feet. That they go into torpor when conditions are poor and can survive fires by sheltering underground. And that during the mating season, male echidnas will line up behind a female, making cooing noises and forming an orderly echidna train, waiting for their chance to impress her with some very strange reproductive equipment! In The Enigmatic Echidna, biologist and award-winning author Danielle Clode follows the echidna on its eclectic path through the Australian landscape. Equal parts surprising, amusing and enlightening, it is an irresistible journey into their unique and beautiful world.