What Is a Baby Echidna Called? Puggles and Pouches

Why is a baby echidna called a puggle?

“Puggle” is an informal Australian name rather than a formal scientific term, and its exact origin is unclear. It is now the everyday name used by zoos, museums, wildlife carers and naturalists for a young echidna, from the moment it hatches until it leaves its burrow.

The word is also sometimes used for a baby platypus, the echidnas’ only living relatives. Together they form the monotremes, the five living mammals that lay eggs, explained in is a platypus a mammal? For the names of other young animals, see baby animal names.

Mating trains and a single egg

Short-beaked echidnas breed during the cooler months, roughly between May and September depending on the region. During courtship, up to about ten males may follow one female nose-to-tail for days or even weeks. These lines are known as “echidna trains,” and the smallest, youngest male is often at the back.

Each mating produces just one egg. About three to four weeks (21–28 days) after mating, the female lays it directly from her cloaca into a temporary pouch that has developed on her belly. The egg is cream-colored, leathery and soft, about 13–17 mm (0.5–0.7 in) across and weighing only 1.5–2 g (about 0.06 oz), roughly the size of a grape.

Hatching inside the pouch

The egg hatches about ten days after it is laid, still inside the pouch. The embryo breaks the shell using a small egg tooth on its snout, a feature it shares with baby birds and reptiles. The tooth disappears soon after hatching.

A newly hatched puggle is tiny: around 1.5 cm (0.6 in) long and 0.3–0.4 g, about the size of a jellybean. It is pink, hairless and almost see-through, and its eyes are barely developed. Its front legs, however, are already strong, with well-formed toes that help it hold on inside the pouch.

Milk without nipples

Like all mammals, the puggle feeds on its mother’s milk. Monotremes, however, have no nipples. Instead, milk oozes from about 100–150 pores in two areas of skin inside the pouch called milk patches, or areolae. Scientists once thought puggles licked the milk from the skin, but they are now thought to suck it from these patches.

Echidna milk changes as the young grows. It becomes much richer in fat and protein over time, and it is unusually high in iron, which gives it a pinkish color. A puggle can drink a large amount in a single feed, and a high proportion of the milk goes directly into growth.

Leaving the pouch: the nursery burrow

A puggle grows very fast. By the time it reaches about 200 g (7 oz), its mother starts leaving it behind while she forages. At about two to three months its spines begin to grow, and it becomes too large and prickly to stay in the pouch.

The mother then places the young in a nursery burrow that she has dug, and closes the entrance with soil when she leaves. She returns only every few days to feed it, so the puggle spends long stretches alone underground. This is a risky time: young echidnas in burrows are sometimes found and eaten by predators such as red foxes, feral cats and goannas.

Suckling gradually decreases, and the young echidna is weaned at around six months. Lactation lasts about 200 days in total. The young leaves the burrow at about 180–205 days old, usually in the southern summer around January or February, weighing about 800–1,300 g. After that, mother and young have no further contact.

Growing up slowly

Young echidnas grow slowly once they are independent. Sexual maturity probably comes at around four to five years at the earliest, and one long-term field study found that some echidnas did not breed until they were between five and 12 years old.

Females also breed infrequently, producing a single young only once every two to six years. This slow pace of life is balanced by an unusually long lifespan for an animal of this size: wild echidnas can live for decades, and the oldest known echidna reached 49 years in a zoo.

Puggles compared with other baby animals

A puggle combines features of several groups. It hatches from an egg like a bird or reptile, grows in a pouch like a baby marsupial, and drinks milk like every other mammal. A newborn kangaroo, called a joey, also develops in a pouch, but it is born live rather than hatching from an egg; see what a baby kangaroo is called.

If you ever find a young echidna on its own in Australia, the safest choice for the animal is to leave it where it is, watch from a distance and, if it seems to be in danger, contact a local wildlife rescue service for advice.