Echidna’s maximum speed is 2.3 kilometres per hour.

Interesting Echidna Facts: Echidna is small animal. These long spines are used as a form of prote JKMelville, via Wikimedia Commons. Echidnas also known as spiny anteaters is an unusual mammal. Body of echidna is covered with two types of hairs. Long hairs turn into spines which provide protection against predators. These spiky little creatures don’t like to go anywhere in a hurry… haste is certainly not an echidna’s strong suit. 1 year ago. It uses its tongue and the roof of its mouth to mash up the termites and ants it eats. One of the more surprising echidna facts is that these spines are in fact modified hairs.These long spines are cream in color and made from keratin, which is the same material that our fingernails consist of.. The claws on an echidna’s hind limbs are curved backwards to help them dig, which is another way they help protect themselves from danger as they can dig their way out of trouble. It reaches 13.5 to 17.5 inches in length and 6.5 to 14.5 pounds in weight.

Short hair acts like a fur which maintains the body temperature. Baby Echidna with Little Hair. And to celebrate this bit of mammalian weirdness, here are Neatorama's Five Fascinating Facts about Echidnas: 1.

In the wild, the oldest recorded echidna lived to 45 years. Echidnas are short, stout creatures. Short-beaked echidna.

In fact, they have a maximum speed of 2.3 kilometres per hour, but are more likely stick to a leisurely dawdle of 1 kilometre per hour. Interesting facts about echidnas. 6. They’re made for digging.

Know of any other interesting facts about echidnas?

It is so different from any other that it still puzzles researchers and scientists. The answer is the echidna, one of the strangest animals that exist on Earth today. In fact, the echidna’s scientific name, Tachyglossus actually means ‘fast tongue’ – quite fitting!

The echidna has no teeth. Tachyglossus aculeatus setosus. The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the Echidna. They can average 30-79 cm in length and weigh up from 3.5 to 22 lbs. Photo: Jeroen Visser/Shutterstock Quick: what mammal is covered with spikes, lays eggs, has a four-headed penis, and no nipples? The oldest echidna raised by a human lived to 50 years old. With the exception of their faces, legs and undersides, echidnas are covered by 2-inch (5 cm) long spines.

7. Facebook; Prev Article Next Article .

Top 10 Echidna Facts.