Viral Thread: The Internet Discovers The Cute Yet Hella Weird Echidnas

We love learning things about animals. The more time we spend looking for information about animals on the internet, the more we realize just how many animals there are there that we have not heard anything about and how many cool stories and facts about animals there are to find out. We will never forget the moment that we found out about the real but mildly terrifying gerenuk or the time we realized that ring-tailed cats are… not actually cats.

There are just so, so many animals out there, and there are cool stories attached to basically every single one. Did you know that Vikings used to gift kittens to newlywed brides? Well, they do. And did you know that… Echidnas are not actually enchiladas? And also that they have a really weirdlookingpenis? Get ready to learn about yet another unknown and yet totally great animal.

Posted by Marielru

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"Echidnas are great"

"Meet Edison. He is an baby Echidna, called a puggle. He came out of an egg which his mother Edweena stored in a pouch her belly. He only took ten days to hatch. The Echidna is the oldest living mammal."

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"This is a Enchilada not an Echidna. Moving on."

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"There are four species of Echidna. One has a short beak like these little fellas, Edgar and Edmond the Echidnas. When they grow up they will get spines a bit like a hedgehog."

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"Edweena is a long beaked Echidna. She uses it like an ant eater to feast on ants, termites, mango chutney, worms and insect larvae. Edweena doesn't have any teeth and can't even bite or chew. Instead she sucks up the insects."

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"Eric is having a swim. Eric the Echidna is a good swimmer. He uses his backwards pointing feet to steer and his snout as a little snorkel. Eric gets hot easily so sometimes has a swim to cool down."

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"Elvis is listening for termites. His ears are very sensitive to low frequency sound emitted by ants and termites. He is going to eat them."

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"Fancy ears are not the only special trick here though. Energizer here like all Echidnas has electroreceptors which pick up signals used by the muscles of prey. Long beaked echidnas have up to 2000 of these receptors though Energizer here is short beaked so only has 400."

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"Ecstasy here is a bit shy. It's because he is trying to hide his erection. Really I don't blame him as his penis is a bit strange. It has four heads. Not only that but he can use two at once and also choose which two of the four he wants to use."

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"Here's Edison the Echidna. Echidnas are great."

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