The Day We Met Our Nemesis

Australia is home to many weird creatures, big and small. We're accustomed to many of the very small ones but over the weekend we met a new rival, our nemesis if you will.

We're of course talking about an Australian ant eater, the Echidna. 

We've witnessed lots of nests ravaged by these guys so we've always had a love/hate relationship without ever meeting one.

Echidnas are one of only two monotremes in the world, that is they are an egg laying mammal. The other is the Platypus, also native to Australia. They typically eat ants and small insects, but also love bullant larvae, withstanding their stings to get to the brood.

Surprisingly she/he was quite timid and happy to have us take a few photos, occasionally stopping to hunker down under the protection of her huge spikes.

We let her carry on her way, eating 1000's of ants a day. Ahhhhhh.

 
FURTHER READING
Food For Thought
Food For Thought

In part 2 we are looking at the various food options within each food group.

Ant Food Explained
Ant Food Explained

In the first part of this two part series we take a look at ant food.

Identifying The Ants You Find This Ant Keeping Season.
Identifying The Ants You Find This Ant Keeping Season.

In Part 3 we take a look at identifying the species.

Is This Ant A Queen?
Is This Ant A Queen?

In Part 2 we take a look at identifying a queen.

OtherBrendon Cameron