Did you say "echidna"?

Echidna (c) Pavel Procházka

ANT LOVER
The short-beaked echidna’s main diet consists of ants, termites, and insect larvae. Echidnas are well equipped to dig up their prey from underground. Massive claws can easily break up hard termite mounds or rotting wood, while the echidna’s tubular, toothless mouth can squeeze into narrow crevices. The rest of the work is done by the long tongue, covered with viscous saliva, which rapidly darts in and out of the mouth to slurp up the insects.

EGG-LAYING MAMMAL
Echidnas and platypuses rank among monotremes, which are the only mammals that lay eggs. This is by no means the last peculiarity in their reproduction. During the breeding season, a temporary pouch forms on the echidna’s belly, where the female carries her only egg until it hatches! Since echidnas don’t have nipples, the hatched offspring, known as a "puggle", suckle milk that its mother exudes from her skin in the area of the milk areola.

Suckling in monotremes was first observed in the platypus by Czech traveller and naturalist Alois Topic in 1899. His discovery forever confirmed the classification of monotremes as mammals.

FEELING PRICKLY
Echidnas are very shy and swiftly curl into a ball at the slightest sign of danger, or even bury themselves so that only their prickly spikes protrude from the surface. In addition, they are extremely strong and can ram their feet into the soil, so it is virtually impossible to pull them out. This deters most predators. However, the puggle is vulnerable in the first weeks after leaving the pouch, so it remains hidden in a burrow while the mother is away searching for food.

SENSING ELECTRIC FIELDS
A relative of the echidna, the platypus, is a creature so unique that it was once considered imaginary. It lays eggs but suckles its young; it has a duck bill, a beaver’s body, and venomous spurs on its hind feet. What’s more, it can detect prey by the faint electric fields inadvertently given off by all animals. Echidnas, too, can perceive electric fields, and are the only terrestrial mammals to do so. But while short-beaked echidnas have 400 electroreceptors on their muzzle, the platypus has 40,000!