Two skiers and a snowboarder got a surprise as an odd-looking critter wandered across the slope. The animal was an echidna, which led to even more questions for viewers of the video. When do you ever see an echidna in the snow?
A little background: echidnas are egg-laying mammals, one of only two animals with this classification. The other is the platypus! There are two species of echidna: the long-beaked and the short-beaked.
Although they resemble both hedgehogs and porcupines, this species is very different. They cannot detach, or shed, their spikes, but do use them defensively. They also have no teeth! To consume their diet of termites, ants, and larvae, they scoop them up on their sticky tongue (much like an anteater) and smoosh them against pads on the roof of their mouth.
Contrary to what you might think watching the video below, they do hibernate, although not in the conventional manner. They go into hibernation, and emerge about halfway through to breed, before going back to their snoozing! This little critter was obviously not concerned by these curious people as he was out enjoying the snow.
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.
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